Dandy can be depressing, Baby
by Subject24
Summary: Dandy hasn't been himself for almost a month now, and meow and QT have no idea whats wrong with their soulful captain. He's been staring into space for days, hasn't said a word to anybody, and is even turning boobies down! Yes, something is very wrong with Dandy, but what?
1. Chapter 1

[Disclaimer: I do not own Space Dandy produced by BONES studio, or any of the ideas concepts and characters in this story. Im just a guy who wanted to write story, I don't own anything.

also!..

I do not in any way beleive that fan service is justafiable. The fact that animators think it is ok to dehumanize peoples minds with their sick interpretations of life is actually nausiating.. and really only serves to those who are to subconciously drowned to tell that what theyre watching is wrong.

I'll tell you right now that its wrong, "dont buy the fish Johanson its slippery cause its actually a snake"!.

... That said,.. inclusion of boobies, the space hooters is only included to keep the story to the story. Not saying Space dandy isnt evil, just writing. With boobies in the Anime, the entire galaxy is a lifeless space zombie..Those are my words.]

so without further to do or say,.. here it is!!!

Dundundun-dundundun-dundundun

dundundun-dundundunnnn

Dundundun-dundundun-dundundun-dundundun-dundunduunnn

Weeee -wooooo

Space Dandy!!! He's a dandy guy, in space! ;

~ He combs the galaxy like his pompadour on the hunt for aliens!

Planet after planet he searches, discovering bizarre new creatures both friendly and not!!!

These are the spectacular adventures of Space Dandy and his brave space crew...in space~~~~~

[It had been a straight month for the members of the aloha oy and as far as business, things were great! They had a straight month of catching all sorts of different aliens, earning half decent rewards, and paying the bills all the way into the next quarter. But as of lately, dandy had not been the same. It took awhile for QT and Meow to notice. QT noticed one day while he caught dandy in the restroom with the faucet on, staring dumbly down at the water going down the drain. Meow didn't until went to the closet to get his favorite Betelgeusian sweater knitted by his Grandmew, and found dandy instead, passed out with a bottle a sparrian ortangino. Some powerful drink, even by Betelgeusian standards.

Meow stared at dandy for a minute, and then took his sweater out, and closed the door going back to Galaxy raider 3 on his PFP .

[But things really sunk in when they went to boobies for the third time in a row, and all dandy could do was stare blankly in front of him. That is where we find our Hero's step in, to see what's really wrong, with their friend]

"Dandy,.. Dandy,... dandy…." QT kept. Poking dandy with one of his extendable vacuum arms. He poked hard enough to tilt slept ead, and then retracted. Meow watched as he devoured a bowl of mice and Algorian fish stew, garnished nicely with poogle peppers.

"Wooow". Meow said with a mouth full with a big piece of mouse.

"I looks like there really is something wrong with him, I thought maybe he was just sick or something but this is our third time here and he still hasn't cheered up."

"YeAeea"

QT continued Poking Dandy, who would move slightly and then resume position staring ahead like some dumb space zombie.

"The Dandy i know could be sick on his deathbed and hop right on out the moment he crossed into boobies!"

"Heeeeeey Dandyeeee!!"

Honey, Golden haired beauty that usually served Dandy and the gang, swung around with all of her sweet as can be charm. Giving Dandy one of her best looks put her hands on her knees and bent over to put her nose just inches from Dandy's.

Normally the act would have the same effect that you get from opening a very carbonated drink after shaking it very hard. This time there was nothing.

Instead he stared ahead, still a lifeless space zombie.

Pouting she made a blowfish face and stood up straight, hands on hips.

"Ok dandy,. That was your last chance. For the past month you've done nothing but ignore me. But i've had enough. Im done."

"No!!!" Meow and QT both exclaimed simultaneously.

Honey made an apologetic face.

"Sorry you guys, but i can't afford to serve a customer as depressing as Dandy. I'll have to get Oolagmoo to serve you from now on." She gestured to the fat green blob with six "boobies?" protruding from her chest"

Meow made a face like he had just swallowed something extremely nasty, QT was straight

X_X

They stared as she walked away, Meow starring a little longer than was necessary. "Well, there goes the best waitress in the galaxy. He threw a chopstick a Dandy, glaring.

The chopstick hit the side of his face and bounced off, landing in his untouched drink QT ordered for him.

"Good job loser, now we have giant jello cups to bring us are food" Meow clenched his fists with tears in his eyes, "She'll get ooze slime in my ramen". TT

QT watched Dandy as he sat staring ahead, and became seriously worried about Dandy's wellbeing.

"Meow, I don't think this is the time to worry about that. I think there's something really wrong with Dandy. We should take him to see a professional, before this gets any worse, or we might lose him completely."

meow threw his paws up in defeat

"we already have!"


	2. Chapter 2

Part 2 _

[Dandy couldn't ever remember feeling this hopelessly lost in his entire life. Ever since he left that space junk station 66 out in quadrant 55 sector 8-530, He always had a clear view of himself and what it was to be something more. He sat in the cockpit of the aloha oy, drunk off of booz, recalling his past.]

Dandy was abandoned as a child by his parents, who were famous outlaws on the run from practically every police agency in all the known galaxies. He had little memory of his parents apart from the day they decided to get rid of him. He could remember them both standing over him, his Dad with his hands on his hips, his Mom's arms crossed, both looming down on him like an unwanted sofa.

"Well Royffer, we're not gonna be able to get very far with this little boy with us. He'll slow us down! The Jaicro Empire will have us within a week if we don't lose him fast."

"Your right Meloney. The boy will do nothing but slow us down. And those guys were really upset about us getting their precious Horn of Jaicro.. perhaps we should return it hun."

"But it's so beautiful! Gold Jaicroian Crystal, encrusted with some of the rarest stones in the galaxy! When we get rid of it, we won't just be the most famous outlaws in the galaxy, we'll be the richest! We'll be free to Rome the galaxy for the rest of our lives"

"That does sound nice, if there is one thing I love more than boobies. It's being rich. Rich and free, baby. That's the way to live."

Dandy's father lifted one hand to his chin and went into seemingly deep thought. After about five seconds he lifted his head and threw out his hand. "Ooook. I've got it! We'll dump the munchkin at the next space station we run into, and then we'll head to Farosey Primus in the Leemu galaxy. They should never find us there."

His mother screamed with delight and jumped onto his father "Oh Roy, your so smart. I don't know how I'd ever live without you"

"I don't know either darling. I'm pretty great." He bent down to dandy and put both hand on his son shoulders. "Here that champ? Your going on a field trip! Go pack all your stuff and be ready to go within the hour. I'm counting on you champ. Your the star, ok?"

His dad would always tell him that, but Dandy never understood what he meant.

A few hours later he was standing on station 66. A gym bag of clothes in his hands, and a bunch of questions in his head.

* * *

I feel as tho this part of the story is highly unnecessary, and needs to be cut out. However it took me a good minute to work it up and i'd feel horrible just dumping the whole thing right off the bat,.. Sooo please bear with my fabricated presentation of Dandy's past OR just skip on down to chapter 5, and avoid wasting your invaluable time. The next two chapters are not vital to the overall plot of the story. Just fluffing my pillows.


	3. Chapter 3

He started living in random alleys and sleeping in old junked spaceships. There were other kids like him on the station, and he quickly learned from them how to hustle for wu-longs to get from day to day. There was a old lady on the corner of the junk yard he would stay in. She would feed him when he couldn't make ends meet himself. But most nights dandy came up with enough to get something small from the store.

Life on the space station was the worst of the worst. Pit hole of the galaxy. There was never anything going on. Cargo ships came every day to drop off loads of metal, plexer plastic and various other types of building material. After that native junkers of the station would come and scavenge out the heaps for reusable parts and material. The parts would then be sold all over the space station for various amounts of wu-longs.

When the spacers would come from all over the galaxy to get deals on spare ship parts. Dandy would always sit in the docking station loading bay watching them come in. The toughest, coolest, brightest characters would pass by him. And Dandy would always stare in wonder at them, sometimes running up to ask for change from the ones he really like to get a better look.

One day he saw the baddest spacer he had ever seen walk out onto the loading bay platform.

He was an old man. Anybody could tell you that much. But he had this smile on him when he came out. It was the smile that flowed out of complete confidence, and it came off brighter than anything dandy had ever seen.

He had shorts on with a pink Hawaiian button up shirt with yellow and red flowers all over it. Ancient aviator glasses reflecting the world back on itself, backed by short blond hair that flashed bronze-gold in an aged fashion. On his wrist he wore a silver chain that looked like a chain of shining stars. With the man were two of the finest chick's dandy had ever seen. One under each arm. Their hair was long and thick, but still fluttered when they walked. Thier lips full, foxy eyes, and big beautiful Breasts! Boobies of such exquisite proportion! They had to be made in heaven. Dandy was sure if it.

Dandy thought this "this man must be god", and ran up to meet him.

"Hey old man" dandy said, panting from sprinting over as fast as he did.

"Do you got some spare change to u could give me?"

The man pulled a face.

"Why would i, give you, any of my change little man?"

Dandy slicked back his hair with one hand, and gave the man one of his famous finger points. "Because, I'm the smartest, coolest, grooviest little man on this space rock, baby". His style seemed to win the man over because he began to smile his brilliant smile again.

"And if you give me just a few wu-longs, I can show you all the best spots to buy parts from. That is why you're here, isn't it old man?"

The old man took off his aviator sunglasses showing his eyes that sparkled like the chain he wore on his wrist. He stared dandy down for a long while, and threw back his head and gave the fullest heartiest laughs that dandy had ever heard. It was so hearty in fact, that dandy himself started to laugh at how hearty it was.

"What's your name boy?"

"Dandy. What's yours?"

"Duster Callaway. Best damn bounty hunter you'll ever meet."

"Is that so?"

"Yeh as a matter matter of fact it is. And you're saying that you can help me?"

Dandy made made an obnoxious sound and looked left and right before looking back at the Duster.

"I know this junk yard better than any person in this loading bay. If there's anybody that can show you around, it's me."

The man laughed again, "Alright little man you've got yourself a deal, find me the part i need for my engine, and i'll hook you up good". Dandy couldn't have been more excited.

Duster and Dandy shook hands vigorously, and the angels on his shoulders giggled softly.

"He's so cute"

Dandy blushed and turned away quickly so they couldn't see the way his face lit up.

"The exits this way" dandy said pointing to an access shaft in the corner of the a bay.

"Lead the way little man" Duster rasped.

Duster was looking for a T-86 space engine diffuser for his ship. Apparently his had been malfunctioning for the past year and needed to be replaced. Dandy took Duster to three of the stations major dealers. The first two of them had them, but they weren't in good enough condition for the old man. The third dealer however had a diffuser in perfect condition. Duster argued with the man for almost an hour befor he got a price that he was satisfied with. Grabbing a Levi-trolly, the dealer loaded the sizable part onto the device and took the agreed amount of wu-longs from Duster. They got back to the ship before the end of the day.


	4. Chapter 4

"Well little man, you filled your part of the bargain out nicely."

"Yeah, well i told you. I know this junk pile better than anyone, baby. I guess you were just lucky i was here."

The bounty hunter smiled his wide smile. "It's getting late" He said "Shouldn't you be getting home to your parents?"

Dandy scrunched up his face into an expression like he was showing scorn for something vile. "I don't live with my parents, i don't live with nobody, baby. I live on my own."

At this Duster gave him a reproachful thoughtful look. "I see" He said deeply. After scratching his chin and looking in the distance for some time he finally said. "Well boy, how would you like to be a bounty hunter?"

Dandy's eyes lit up like a flash fire in the night "Become a bounty hunter?! Like you?!"

"That's right, come live with me and i'll show you everything i know. How does that sound"

"That sounds like you have yourself a deal ."

The old man put out his hand,"Put her there son". Dandy took his hand and shook it as firmly as he could(he was very thin).

[From then on Dandy lived on The Dancing Flamingo as Duster Callaway's personal assistant. He ran errands, cooked, cleaned, did maintenance for the ship and occasionally went out with Duster on missions. Or he would claim that he did these things if you asked him. If you asked Duster you would hear that he was a terrible cook, couldn't clean a bar of soap, and any errand he was told to do was done late, or not at all. As for Dandy helping with Bounty missions… The boy was responsible for the escape of at least 40 high-profile criminals. The first mission Dandy was on he ruined an ambush by jumping out in front of the targeted criminal and giving him a ten minute speech about criminals being the worst types of people in the galaxy. The man gathered from the speech that Dandy knew he was a criminal and made his escape before he could be apprehended. Another time he was told to watch a Bounty head caught in a space bar while Duster was away securing payment. Duster came back to find Dandy engrossed in a conversation with one of the bar's waitresses with a very low cut blouse. The final straw was when he blew up a old spacecraft that had vital information regarding one of the biggest bounty heads that Duster had ever chased. Dandy was immensely proud of his involvement in Dusters missions telling everybody and anybody that he was the deputy of the "Best Bounty Hunter in the galaxy". This continued even after he was banned from going on missions. Dandy stayed with Duster for 8 years before becoming old enough to apply for a bounty hunting license. On his 18nth birthday he packed up all his stuff and left to the the intergalactic law enforcement station to take the bounty hunter exam. There were three parts to the exam. The space weapon accuracy test, the dangerous alien apprehension test, and the intergalactic law written portion. Dandy failed all with flying colors. He actually failed the test so hard, that the examiners referred to him ever after as the bounty bomber, after the way he bombed the test. Dandy took the exam 6 times, and he received lower scores with each attempt. After the 6th failure, Dandy with a crippled pride and a heavy heart gave up on becoming a Bounty Hunter. It was probably the worst defeat of his life. A couple of months after giving up on bounty hunting, he learned of space alien hunting. Figuring that was the next best thing, Dandy hopped a spaceship to the Space Alien registry center, took the exam and passed. The rest is history.]

* * *

The Story returns to real Space Dandy time in the next chapter, If you read through up to this point then i give you a thumbs up ~,~b Thanks for stickin wit it homie


	5. Chapter 5

[It was one day while they were floating in the Caprellian star system, that Dandy came clean about what it was that was bothering him.]

Meow was sitting comfortably on the Aloha Oy waste receptacle when Dandy burst through the door in tears.

"Meow, Buddy! Im a failure! I'm a loser!"He shrieked. "I'm no good! Meow no good, no good".

"Dandy wha-"

"I'm terrible Meow! I'm the worst! The biggest peice of space trash in the known universe! No good, I'm no good." He slapped his face against the wall and then slid down into a slump onto the floor.

"Dandy can this wait? I'm kinda taking a-"

"It was at that space bar we went to two weeks ago, those damn bounty hunters!" He shook his fist menacingly at their invisable faces.

"The Cosmo's Politan? That was almost four months ago! Dandy what the-"

"They were all sitting at the table, drinking their drinks, telling their stories. How this guy took down a dangerous criminal, or how this guy had taken down an entire Mafia on his own." He whimpered alittle befor continuing. "I just thought i'd come over and tell them about some of the aliens we've taken in,.. You know, the tree thing we took in last week."

Meow sighed and nodded with an irratated scowl, "Yeh, that was five months ago, and it was a wood giant."

"Yeh, yeh that thing" He continued "I thought i'd just come over and tell them how we corned that guy you know. And so i do... " Dandy sobbed quietly to himself for a moment. "And do do you know what they do when i tell them?"

Meow sat cornered on the toilet, there was nothing for him to do but shrug and ask "What did they do?"

"They laughed!" he cried. "They laughed Meow. Fist they laughed that i was an alien hunter, and then they laughed that i had apprehended a tree."

"Well when you say it like that.."

"I've always looked up to them you know? Ever since i was a little kid. And those guys laughed at me like i was the funniest thing they had ever seen! Like i was a joke Meow. Like i was some big joke." Dandy turned to face Meow with a lost look on his face.

"Am I a joke Meow? Am I? Parading around the galaxy dragging innocent aliens who arn't harming anybody millions of parsects away to some bogus space federation so their name and face con be stuck in a folder and filed away, never to be seen again. That is what we do Meow, isn't it?"

Meow Shifted uncomfortably on the toilet seat, trousers halfway down, he had no idea what to say. Even by Beetlejuician standards(standards that were pretty low) Meows emotional counseling skills were pretty crappy. His silence was taken as testimony.

"I knew it!" Dandy cried rising to his feet. "I am a joke. I'm a failure! I'm a loser! A no good bum who gets paid for doing nothing at all! I knew it" He breathed as all the life went from his eyes. He became as he had been for the past months, a lifeless zombie. Without saying anything more, he trudged out of the bathroom, leaving Meow alone wondering what in the world had just occurred.

So Meow told Qt what had happened and together the two of them tried to talk Dandy, but they got nothing out of him. Dandy acted and moved as if in a upright comatose, showing minimal signs of life. If he talked he said fewer than 6 words, or didn't say anything at all. Most of the time he would just grunt. He hardly ate, and drank all the time, but always from the mouths of strong bottles of liquor. But even drunk there were no signs of happiness, or joy, or much of any emotion at all.

It was as if Meow and Qt had lost their Captain/friend/partner. Where he once partied and danced all day to his boom box, he now sat around and stared at the wall blankly. Where he would before fraternize and flirt with every pretty girl he would come across, he now walked through them as if they weren't even there. Where as he once went from day to day as enthusiastically and spirited as possible, he now went as a lifeless doll dressed in Dandy's clothes. Dandy was still there, but for all intents and purposes it seemed as if QT and Meow had lost him.

The two of them tried cheering him up in every way Imaginable. They took him to Boobies and ordered his favorite meal. He took one bite and was done with the entire meal. They took him rocket boarding at a rocket board park. His rocket board never left the ground. They took him to an explicit art gallery that he had said he wanted to go to. He walked through the entire gallery without looking at a single piece. Meow bought him a newly released karaoke game and played it with him. Qt baked Dandy one of his famous double Dutch & German chocolate cakes. Dandy responded to neither attempts.

It seemed as if Dandy was beyond help. That was until Meow discovered something while he was looking up Beetlejuician nudey pictures online.

"Hew QT, come over here and check this out." QT who was not far away vacuuming rolled over to Meow. "WHAaat is it Meow?"

"Check out this ad that just popped up" Meow said sliding his laptop over so QT could see.

"Oh, Ahh! Meow!" Checking the screen again Meow blushed alittle "Oh, my bad." He said clicking some buttons in a hurry.

"I ment this." Meow said, sliding the laptop over to QT again this time with the intended content onscreen. In a box on the viewscreen there was a question in big bold black letters. [Are you depressed?] QT looked at Meow inquisitively "Am i depressed ? Meow i don't think that's a relevant question for me". "Yeh? Well i think you know somebody it is relevant for" Meow shot back his paw pointing in the direction of the cockpit where Dandy was curled up with an undersized blanket.

"OooOh Right."

QT clicked the yes option and the question faded, another taking it's place. [Do you wish you could be happier?] Qt clicked the "Yes" option once again. [Do you want to smile more often?] Another click for yes. [Then you should come to...] The screen went black for a second and then in bright blue lettering [Dali Rama]. A visually impressive cinematic video began playing onscreen. [Come meditate with us in some of the most scenically beautiful places in the universe. Get pampered at our state of the art therapeutic institutions. Receive Life guidance from some of the wisest minds in existence. All this and more at the most accredited resort planet of all time. Dali Rama] The video ended with a galaxy map, and directions to the planet as well as a link to the official website.

"WOoOoow" Said QT sounding impressed. "A whole planet made into a resort. Thats amazing!"

"Thats what i'm saying!" Meow agreed. " And from what it says on the website, it's cheap too! Cheap enough for even us." Meow clicked on the link for the website and brought up the prices. "WOOooO That is cheap!"

"And look at all the stuff you can do!" Meow brought up the seemingly endless list of activities and services for customers.

""If this place dosn't fix Dandy, Then I'm not sure he can be fixed" said meow.

* * *

More soon!...


	6. Chapter 6

QT input the coordinates into the ship's auto-pilot system and set them on a course for Dali Rama. From there it took them two weeks to get to the planet running at maximum output on the Aloha Oy's warp drive. That entire two weeks Dandy remained the same lifeless zombie wandering about the ship in a semiconscious daze and breaking out occasionally into unrestrained weeping. A few days into their journey, QT and Meow locked Dandy in his quarters to prevent him from hurting himself, or the ship. He became very quiet after this, like a bird who has had a blanket put over its cage.

Upon arrival they were sent landing instructions by the Dali Raman government. Within a few hours they were walking onto the landing platform floor, joining the thousands of other visitors to the resort planet. Like everywhere in the Dandy universe the visitors came in every size, shape, and color that you could possibly imagine without giving yourself permanent brain damage. But there was one constant among college of aliens in front of them. That was little men in dull gold robes scurrying amongst the visitors in short little steps, their hands folded together in front of them.

These must be the Monkey'ans QT thought to himself. He had read about them online when researching Dali Rama. They were hermaphroditic humanoid race that had only been discovered three hundred years ago, though their civilization had been around as long as prehistoric earths. They were small, yellow hairless humanoids that were only half the size of Dandy, only a little shorter than the average Beetlejuician. The most notable thing about the Monkeyan civilization was their emphasis of spiritual practice. Monkeyans spent almost every minute, of every hour, of every day, in praise to the great spirit of life who they called "Rahm". Their civilization boasted the galaxies greatest amount of religious structures on one planet. The Capitol of Dali Rama, Shangri-la-la-laa was built by the monkeyans as a means to reaching out to universe, and giving peace to all that inhabit it.

As the crew was looking around one of these little men appeared from nowhere besides them. "Welcome to Dali Rama!" The man said in such a soft voice that QT and Meow would not have noticed him if he had not been within inches of both of them.

Meow & Qt both screamed in surprise. Meow with heightened Beetlejuician reflexes jumped back instinctively, tripping over his suitcase in the process.

The little man looked absolutely horrified at this and rushed over in small quick steps to help meow up.

"No, No friend, you must not be afraid. There is no need for any fear here my friend." The man cooed in his soft voice as he bent down to give meow a hand. Meow accepted the help but didn't lose an ounce of his irritation.

"You didn't scare me!" Meow snapped back at him "you just took me by surprise. Hasn't anybody ever taught you about personal space?"

"Oh no, now my friend is angry. Calm down friend there is no reason to be angry on Dali Rama."

Qt rolled over to intervene between the annoyed Meow and the insistent Monkeyan. "Excuse me sir, but could you tell us where visitors sign in?" QT asked.

"Visitors sign in with me" The short yellow man said, giving a wide cheerful smile. "I am your guide, Hamsham. You are the Dandy crew correct?"

"YEees We are the Dandy crew" Qt hummed. "We signed up for the Dali Raman Deluxe Therapy package.."

"This is our first time here." Said Meow, completely recovered from his fall.

"Oh Wonderful!" The little monk said clapping his hands together and smiling. "Well you should know that this is likely to be the most life changing time that you will ever have in your life. Dali Rama is a very powerful place."

"Yeh that's what the website said" Meow interjected sounding slightly snobbish. "That's actually why we're here. Our friend has been half dead depressed for an entire month. We're here to try to get him fixed."

"I'm guessing you are talking about the lively man in the jacket over there?" Hamsham said nodding towards Dandy, who was standing at the access hatch porthole with a blank look on his face. The liveliest thing going on about dandy was a bread of drool that was slowly crawling down his chin.

"Yeh… him" Meow said, making their mission sound more like a tedious chore than anything else.

"Very Good, Well I can assure you brought him to the right place. There are hundreds of ways to cure depression here in Shangri-la-la-laa, he should be back to normal in no time." Hamsham said assuringly. "Where would you like to start? We have meditation at the grand temple of meditation, acupuncture at temple of medicine, Spiritual coaching at the temple of wisdom, Psychotherapy at the temple of wel-"

"Woah woah woah" Meow said, stopping Hamsham midsentence. "Actually Hamsham, I havn't slept for the past 48 hours, so if you could take us to the nearest hotel, I'd appreciate it."

"That sounds like a good idea, my battery is almost dead and I'm running on reserve power". QT added from besides him.

"Ah yes. Well then you sound like you are wanting to check in at the grand temple of sleep and rest. I can take you there."

"Geeze, you guys have a temple of sleep? Is everything here a Temple?"

"Yes, actually" Hamsham stated shortly, still smiling sweetly. "If you will follow me, I will show you to the temple."

Hamsham lead the trio through the crowded landing dock center out into the open air of Shangri-la-la-laa. Qt and Meow stared in awe at the site around them. While they were descending into Shangri-la-la-laa they had already seen that the city was a community of mountainside temple structures connected by roadways, and magnet train tubes. But nothing could have prepared them for seeing the beauty of it first hand. Monolithic kingdoms of white and gold rose from the sides of an entire valley of mountainside. Rivers and waterfalls could be seen intermittent throughout kingdoms running through aqueducts that funneled the water down into a lake in the valley below. The buildings were all huge masterpieces of brilliantly white shining stone with rooftops of gold that gleamed in the sunlight. They could see that they were in a sort of terraced kingdom of temples. From the lower terraces to the highest terrace they could see all sorts of buildings, each one as ornate a beautifully built as the next. At the highest terrace Qt could see massive temple with a spire of gold rising out of its roof that extended high into the air, and whose peak seemed to shine with a bright golden light, reflecting the shine of late afternoon sun.

Their guide, hamsham, tottered in front of them with surprising speed. He led them through the packed streets of the Monkeyan city commenting on buildings and monuments as they passed by.

"that is the temple of pure water" he said as they passed by a beautiful ivory building with waterfalls and fountains all over it. "There you can purchase any amount of Dali Raman pure water you wish for"

"that.." he said pointing to a giant fountain in front of the temple, "is the fountain of life". He looked back to the QT and Meow with a smile. "It is said to be the Monkeyan secret to our magnificent complexion.

They continued down the massive walkway until they reached a huge glowing castle.

"This will be where you will be staying for your time here in Shangri-la-la-laa. The Grand Temple of sleep & rest."

"Wooooww" Qt and Meow exclaimed simultaneously.

The grand templeof sleep and rest was, like alot of the buildings of Shargrila-la-laa, massive and ornate. Golden brown marble stone that seemed to glow with an amber depth to it. The roof of the building differed from most of the buildings as it was bronze instead of white stone, or gold. Though the sun reflecting off its polished surface made it seem as if the whole thing was ablaze.

The concierge at the front desk was in every way completely identical to Ham-Sham, he greeted the trio with a warm smile, and the same soft wispy voice.

"Hello" he said "welcome to The Grand Palace of Sleep and rest, how may I assist you?"

QT answered from just under the desk "Ahh yes, we had a reservation for the three bed deluxe suite"

"Name the reservation is under?"

"Space, Dandy" Meow responded. "We're the Dandy crew"

The concierge messed with the computer on his desk for a minute before ducking down underneath the desk and coming back up with a key-card. The small yellow man handed the key-card over to meow with a smile bidding them "To have a wonderful night."


	7. Chapter 7

[After a week of treatment from all sorts of State-of-the-art, top-of-the-line therapeutic activities, Dandy was still upset and bothered. QT and Meow took Dandy to every available program available to the deluxe package members and things had not gotten any better. If anything things had gotten worse. Whereas Dandy was previously in a state of perpetual super before, he was now in a state of perpetual angry belligerence. Starting arguments over nothing, calling complete strangers all sorts of insulting names, challenging anybody he laid eyes on to a duel-to-the-death (come up with the Japanese diction for a duel to the death). He had been this way ever since the crews first morning on Dali Rama when he ran out of liquor from the Aloha Oy's liquor reserves. Ever since then he had been in a rage.

At the current moment Dandy had locked himself in the grand palace bedroom and was refusing to come out.]

"DandyEEEE! We know your in there! Open up the door you air-headed space-bum!" Meow yelled at the closed door of their suite. The sound of silence was the only reply to his remark.

They had been through every avenue of help that Shangri-la-la-laa had to offer, but they still came up dry. Natural therapy, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, Aromatherapy. They had tried Acupuncture, Herbal Remedies, Herbal Baths, Meditation, Life Coaching, Polarity Therapy, Existential Therapy, and a crazy thing called Cranial Unwinding. Acupuncture had been their first attempt at curing Dandy.

The acupuncturist had Dandy lay face up on the table. He explained that health is the result of a harmonious balance of the complementary extremes of yin and yang of the life force known as chi. Acupuncture was the method of bringing this energy into balance by stimulating key pressure points in the body with tiny needles. "This can be a very powerful experience" The monk warned them before he started. He began to stick hairline thin pins into Dandy. The puncturist started off with only a few pins, but slowly added more and more. Eventually Dandy was covered with pins and no better off than when he started.

Then they spent an entire Day at the Grand Temple of Medicines Medicinal warehouse. There they tried hundreds of herbal mixtures, potions, and concoctions. All were advertised by the Herbologist there to be surefire ways of making a person utterly happy and blissful. Dandy did not so much as smile after experimenting with any of the presented drugs. Even one very powerful herb called Ramajuanna, failed to produce any positive effects for Dandy. That night they went to the highly Esteemed "Bathhouse of the spirits" to use some bath salts they got from the temple of medicine. They tried three different types of salts, all to no avail. Dandy was still depressed and angry, in his pink and purple bathing suit, with a bright yellow star on his crouch. Though Meow thoroughly enjoyed the bath, and made a habit of visiting it every night.

The next few days they tried any and all types of Therapy available to them with their deluxe treatment package. Natural Therapy, Psychotherapy, Polarity Therapy, Message Therapy, even Hypnotherapy. None of the therapies seemed to make any real progress on Dandy's mood. The hypnotherapist succeeded in using a ball on the end of a string to hypnotize Dandy into thinking he was happy. This was working for a short period of time before Meow accidentally called him by his name. Apparently, by calling Dandy's name Dandy remembered who he was. And remembering who he was, was like remembering he wasn't. He woke up from the spell the hypnosis had him under and ran away in a fit of emotion.

Now they stood in front of a locked door with an angry Space Dandy inside. Meow was beginning to wonder if Dandy was ever going to recover from this funk that he was in. It had been almost two and a half months, and things had only seemed to get worse. He supposed that if Dandy never got better then he could always go back home and work in his father's metal shop. That would suck, but it would be better than being stuck with Dandy as his life went down the drain. The only thing Dandy wanted to do these days was drink until he passed out, wake up, and then do it again. Meow could guess where that type of lifestyle was going. And then an Idea hit him. Maybe not to fix him completely, but at least to get him out of the room.

Meow yelled through the door again. "Hey DandyEEEEE! Hamsham just brought us a bottle of Sparingo Orantino on the house, say's he wants you to have it!"


	8. Chapter 8

With a pouting Dandy a few steps behind them, Qt Meow and Ham-sham set off to the Grand Temple of Wisdom for a spiritual guidance class. Ham-sham explained that the class was going to be given by the famous Monkeyan Wei-Foo. He was apparently one of the most influential minds in the known galaxy.

As they come around the corner they caught sight of the Temple of wisdom. Like all the other Temples, the temple of widom was huge and ornately decorated with flowery architecture in polished bright white stone. In front of the temple was a massive statue of bronze-gold that shined like fire in the midday sun. QT and Meow could not help but to stop for awhile in front of it to goggle at the statue's size and brilliance.

HamSham called from the doors of the temple of Wisdom, "Master Meow, Master QT!" He cooed "We must hurry, the lecture is about to start!". Blinking back their awe at the awesome structure, the two broke their fixation on the statue and followed Ham-Sham into the temple.

Wei-Foo's lecture was being held in an amphitheater about the same size of the rock stadium on Space Budokan that the Dandy crew played at as "The Dropkix". But this was no rock concert, it was just a lecture. By the time Ham-Sham and the Dandy crew had arrived it was near full capacity. Aliens of all types were seated talking to each other all in their different dialects, the combined sound coming together to form a deafening garbled roar.

It took them Nearly 20 Minutes to find seats among the sea of beings. Just as they did A Monkeyan in standard dull golden robes walked out onto the stadium's stage.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!" The Monkeyans voice came, thundering through the loudspeakers that covered the ceiling. "May I have you attention please!". The noise in the stadium instantly subsided as heads of all sort of shapes and sizes turned to face the stage.

The Little Monk'eyan spread his arms out dramatically before shouting at the crowd. "You are in luck!" He said with a voice filled with glee. "The person you are about to listen to is considered by many to be a living fountain of wisdom! He is one of the most enlightened minds in the known universe! His teachings have not only been the founding cornerstone of Monkeyan philosophy, but has been guiding the spirits of millions across the galaxy to enlightenment for almost a century. He has come here today to show you the path…" The Monkeyan paused dramatically "To enlightenment!" The Monkeyan shouted, his voice blaring through the stadium speakers, but inevitably being drowned out by the wild cheers of thousands of spectators.

"I give you". The announcer said once the cheering had quieted down alittle. "WEI.. FOO!".

The crowd went wild again, as the announcer turned and retreated towards the backstage. A moment later a small figure in purple and gold robes came waddling out onto the stage. The spotlight followed him from the edge of the stage to the center. On the ceiling, gigantic screens gave a close up view of Wei-Foo, and like all the other Monkeyan's he looked completely identical to every other one of his kind.

The monkeyan surveyed the crowd for several moments before he threw his arms out in greetings. "Good afternoon my fellow sentient beings!" He said through his clip on microphone. "What a wonderful day it is to choose happiness!" He gave a smile that seemed to light the entire stadium befor continuing.

"To be happy. To have happiness. Is it not a wonderful thing? Many people ask what is happiness? What is it to be happy? Out of all the emotions that there is to feel, what is it to be happy?" He smiled and took a few steps forward. "I will tell you now, Happiness is value in a living beings soul, it is has the spiritual value of the rarest jewels, and the finest clothes. It is the feeling of Goodness with life."

"But Rahm teaches us that happiness is an active state of doing as much as it is a state of being. So when we ask 'how is it we aren't happy', we should be asking ourselves, 'what can we do to obtain happiness?' "

"The great spirit of life, which we Monkeyans call Rahm, wishes for all beings of the universe to live life with an abundance of happiness. That is because Rahm wishes for all beings of the universe to live a life full of value. The more valuable life is lived, the more value is brought to Rahm, who is the spirit of life."

"It is much the same way with us" Wei-Foo went on. "If you are happy, you would also wish for your neighbor to happy, for the simple reason that you are happy. If your neighbor is sad, that is no good! He will make you sad just by being sad besides you. No, no my friends. You must not allow your neighbor to be sad besides you." The Monkeyan lifted his hands up in front of him. "You must lift them up so that they feel the same sunshine you feel. In doing this, your happiness is twice as strong, and can get even stronger."

Meow and QT had been quietly nodding in agreement to everything that had been said so far hoping that somehow this would get through to Dandy. But as Meow looked to his side to see if Dandy was listening, he discovered that he wasn't even there. There was an empty space, where dandy had been seated just a moment ago. Before Meow even had time to wonder where he could have gone, there was a gasping from the audience.

Dandy had jumped onstage, and was wrestling with a gang of Monkeyan bodyguards. Wei-Foo who had stopped talking and turned to see the commotion called out to the bodyguards. "Stop!" He said in a convicting voice. "This is the neighbor of which I just spoke of! Let him through, let him speak!"

Five guards who had jumped on Dandy, all quit handling him and let him walk freely. Another monkeyan from offstage scurried over to Dandy and handed him a microphone. The Video feed of the stadiums video screens now showed a close up of Dandy who was looking like he was angry person lacking sleep.

"Happiness!?" Dandy cried through the microphone. "The Great Spirit of life?"

"Whaataa Load of space poop!" Dandy said, scrunching his face up in his disgust. "You mean to tell me that all the world is about is sunshine and rainbows? That all I should be about is sharing my sunshine with my neighbor? Yoour full of it!" He said pointing an accusing finger.

"What about pain of life? What about the unfairness!? Who's going to account for that?"

"You say that I can choose to be happy? HA!" Dandy snorted. "I can hardly choose to be happy in a life like my own. My world chose for me to be unhappy. It chose for me to be in the ditch, down and out, trash in the can. Changing that is like asking a mountain to move out my way, or the oceans to let me cross. The universe is a cruel cocktail of natural elements that will be however they want. If it decides to deal you the losing cards of the deck, well then that's just to bad for you! The world doesn't care if you win of lose. So how can I chose to be happy when I've been delt sadness huh? How can I be a winner when I know I'm a loser? How am I supposed to be happy then? Huh?"

"You might as well be asking me to make fire cold, or ice hot. It's just not going to happen" He said finally before he dropped the microphone, which fell to floor and made a loud thud and screeching sound through the stadium speakers. Dandy turned away and stormed out of the amphitheater, leaving the crowd in a stunned silence.

Meow, QT and Hamsham followed Dandy out of the theater, but failed to catch him in time. They stood out in front of the Temple of wisdom looking around for signs of their angry friend. It was then that Meow again became fixated by the sight of the golden statue in front of the Temple. The statue was of some mysterious creature standing in front of four Monkeyans folded up in meditative stances. The statue had remarkable detail, and exuded an air of attraction that made it hard to look away.

"Hamsham What is that thing?" Meow asked finally, pointing to the statue of the creature. "That's a Llama.." Said QT, "It's a native creature of earth, a cousin of the horse, and the Camel".

"Actually, . . That would be the Legendary Dali La-La-Lama" Hamsham corrected cheerfully. "He is the being responsible for teaching spirituality to the Monkeyan Race." Hamsham pointed to one of the Monkeyans in front of the Llama. "Those Four monkeyans are the founders of Monkeyan spiritual civilization." And then he pointed to one in particular."That one is Wei-Foo, when he was just a little monkeyan." In the statue, Wei-Foo looked a lot younger than he appeared on the stadium view screen. "Wei-Foo?" said QT, "The Dali La-la-lama?" Said Meow.

"Yes and Yes" Said Hamsham. "The Dali La-la-lama is said to be the wisest mind in the universe. He is said to exist in between this dimension of the universe, and the highest dimension of the universe. He has attained a level of enlightenment that cannot be surpassed."

"WOoow" QT exclaimed. "HamSham!" Meow cried angrily "Why didn't you tell us this before? All this time we've been wasting in treatment we could have been finding this La-la-lama thing and getting him to fix Dandy. Where does he live? Can we see him?"

"Yes you could" Hamsham replied. "But that might difficult. The way to the Dali La-la-lama is not an easy one.."

"Well then where does he live Hamsham, tell us!"

Hamshams voice became hushed with foreboding. "Across a sea of ice where a constant blizzard blows, through a cave of perpetual darkness, Into a active volcano, and finally climbing a natural staircase the length of three typical mountains. There you will find the pasture of the Lalalama. A Llama so great, that he had surpassed all the limits and boundaries of space and time, and still came back to live within them. It is said that whoever comes in contact with the Lalalama, upon touching his blessed fleece, are immediately enlightened, and have total and lasting happiness for the remainder of their days." A minute passed between them in silence as QT and Meow considered what the Guide had told them.

"Hamsham!" Meow said finally. "What my friend? You asked and I told you"

"whoever touches it fleece gets everlasting happiness? Why didn't you tell us this earlier!? Cmon man!"

"I'm sorry my friend. I didn't think your friend would be so resistant to treatment here in Shangrila-la-la. And I would not recommend trying to find the Holy one. The path is very Dangerous."

Meow looked at QT with a determined look in his eye. "Lets find Dandy and figure out a plan to find this Dali la-la-lama thing. Once we do we can get dandy back to normal and get on with our lives."


	9. Chapter 9

After searching it up in the complimentary computer suite, Meow & QT figured out that the Dali Lalalama was almost a foundational legend in Monkeyan culture. Not even almost, it was! The first site they went on they found a article detailing the formation of the Monkeyan race, the Dali La-la-lama was the most mentioned figure. But nothing in the article actually mentioned where the thing actually existed.

In the temple of wisdom, Hamsham directed Meow & Qt to the library of Rahm where all things involved in spiritual enlightenment were kept. Here there was an entire section devoted to the legendary figure. After only a few minutes of searching Qt found a biography on the La-la-lama, and Meow found a book detailing the 800 million fold path, an ancient path of deliverance to the La-la-lama. Meow wrote down the coordinates to the start of the path and instructions for the path after that, and made sure to be extremely accurate. After that they bade farewell to ham-sham and took the aloha-oy to the coordinates they found in the library. After looking in the ship's console browser for further information, surprisingly the legendary creature showed up. According to the biographies online, the Llama was a sort of alien-deity that had existed for a very long amount of time. Records of it tracing all the way back to the beginning of the Monkeyan civilization. The Llama had been given credit for the creation of the entire Monkeyian faith, and a lot of the aspects of their culture. However, despite the apparent fame of the creature, there are no actual records of the llama ever even being seen, or studied by any fact that he was an alien deity got Meow thinking, maybeee.

"QT, look here! This Llama thing is an "S class" alien! hasn't even been registered at the alien registration center!"

"Meeow, I don't think…" Meow jumped out of his seat like the ships computer had just pulled out a gun on him. "Holy crap Qt! This thing is worth 200 million wu-longs! That's almost enough money to buy our own planet!"

"Meow we're supposed to be looking for a way to get Dandy better,. Aren't we?"

Meow rolled his eyes at the little robot and waved a beetlejucian paw at him dismissively. "Yeh yeh, I know. We can do that too, don't worry."

So the two head off to the coordinates given by the detailed Dali Raman literature. "The frozen sea of ice" was several hundred kilometers north of Shangrila-la-la. They got as close as they could without getting caught in the force blizzard that they were faced with as they approached the sea of ice. The storm was strong, that much they could tell. Even as they were on the outer limits of the storm, the Aloha Oy was being violently knocked around. Qt got them as far into the sea as he could get them without wrecking the ship on the ice.

Once they landed they dressed in special thermal suits to protect them from the blizzards cold and the foretold volcano's heat. Over that they put on so.e hiking gear that would help them with the three mountain high quickly figured out that the suits could only do so much against the the Dali Raman super blizzard. Meow and Dandy struggled across the face of the ice in the direction of the fabled mountain that was said to contain the lair of the Dali La-la-lama. They were completely blinded in the white frost that while around them, they could see no fabled mountain. For that matter they couldn't each other on feet apart from each other, or their hands held inches from their faces. To keep together they tied to each other they used some rope QT had brought for hiking the mountain. Qt lead the way, being that he was the only one that couldn't feel the cold. Even without feeling the cold though, Qt had plenty of trouble with the terrain and flushing his system with antifreeze to keep his systems from seizing up.

Finally after a day of hiking across the ice, the gang ran upon a face of rock that brought them to a halt. They spent the next three hours searching in the unrelenting blizzard for a spot that their mapping systems would work so that they could find the entrance to the cave of perpetual darkness. Eventually, after inching their way their way around the immovable face of rock they found a fissure in the rock that gave them some cover from the storm. Working their way into the fissure. They found that the opening continued farther than they thought. They continued into the crack to see how far how far it went, and found that it was actually the opening that they were looking turned on his UltraL.e.d. lighting feature in the bottom corners of his face. A tunnel before them was shown clearly ahead.

"Well I guess this is the entrance to the cave of perpetual darkness." Meow said, wiping the snow from his thermal suit visit. "Glad we brought you along Qt, I forgot to bring a flashlight, hehe..."

"YEAaah" Qt responded stoically"good thing". "I'm cold" Dandy moaned from the back of the gang, "let's go back to the ship, this is stupid you guys"

"Whats stupid is how long you've been in this funk your in" Meow snapped back at him. "We can go back to the ship when your back to normal"

Dandy moaned again and muttered something intelligible. Meow untied Qt, but left Dandy tied to himself to ensure he didn't run.

"C'mon Qt, lead the way, you have the light buddy"

And with that Qt rolled forward with Meow and Dandy following close behind...

The passage through the tunnel seemed to run on for miles deeper an deeper into the mountain. After a full hour of procession into the tunnel they were initially walking through, the trio came to a fork in the path. On one side the was a wide opening that led into more darkness. The other side there was a slightly smaller opening that led into an equally dark continuum.

"Oh great!" Dandy said throwing his arms up in defeat. "There's no telling which way we go now, we might as well turn back because this is gonna end up with us all..

"Shut up Dandy!" Meow said, and then turning back to the divide asked aloud his voice echoing off the tunnel walls. "which tunnel do we go through?"

"ThEre's no telling. The directions were vEery vaAgue. All that was mentioned wAas the passage was through the cAave of perpEtual darkness"

Qt surveyed both tunnels before turning to the tunnel with the wider opening."I guess we should go through the tunnel with the widest gap,right?"

"Bigger is better" mused Meow stroking his chin in thought.

"It doesn't matter if we take the right tunnel or the left tunnel, either one of those are deathtraps that are gonna end up with us getting lost and starving to death." Dandy reasoned from behind them both. "We should just head baa.."

"Shut up Dandy!" Qt and Meow sounded off simultaneously.

"We take the big one, we can always come back if its the wrong way." Meow reasoned Qt hummed an agreement "SUure can"

"Lets go!" Meow said and this time lead the way with Dandy in tow. Qt brought up the rear with the light shining it well in went through tunnel after tunnel of dark rock. The rock opened up at times into vast caverns with stalagmite and stalactites covering the ceiling and floor. They saw giant crystals in one such cavern. And underground lake in another.

EVENTUALLY they came to a particularly hot part of the cave. Dandy was the first to complain. "Why is it so hot here?" He mewled from behind Meow. "I'm sweating like a dog in this suit, can we find somewhere cooler?"

"The fact that your hot means we must be close to the volcano. We need to be heading towards the heat, not heading away from it" QT responded. From there they followed the heat. The tunnels that got hotter they proceeded into, every time they turned into a tunnel that got colder they new they were getting farther from their destination. Needless to say they got very, very hot before they found any sort of recognition of being in the right direction. At the end of one very long tunnel they found a glowing orange light coming from the end. They followed the light into a blistering heat that even with the environmental suits was almost impossible to to the end of the tunnel they found that it opened up into a massive cavern where a gigantic pool of lava flowed and bubbled underneath a canopy of rock. On the far end wall of the volcano there was the outline of an unusual cropping of rock that climbed all the way to the ceiling.


	10. Chapter 10

"Finally" Meow sighed as they looked out onto the lake of molten rock. "This must be the active volcano that the legend talks about" he said apathetically. "Look guys" Qt said excitedly pointing to the tall spire that came up in the middle of the volcano."It's the stairs ham-sham was talking about."

"And there" he pointed below to a very narrow path leading straight through the lava to the stairs.

"The stairway of enlightenment." Meow said in awe.

Qt made a whistling sound. Dandy groaned.

"Well, let's climb it. C'mon Dandy, we're almost there." Meow said as he led the way down to the narrow passage to the stairs.

The heat from the molten lava radiated intensely from either side of the narrow rock passage. Dandy, Qt, and Meow progressed the way making their way towards the spire. All the while the lava moved and bubbled slowly. One slip and they would end up fried versions of themselves. Parts of the passage bits of rock would crumble away at points along the way, and there were a few times that the three almost slipped. Along the way Dandy decided to strike up a conversation. "So say we do actually get to this Dali lalalama thing. What makes you guys so sure that a Llama is going to be able to help us reach spiritual enlightenment? I mean, it's a Llama. Last time I checked Llama's are just as dumb as any animal."

It's not a typical Llama Dandy, didn't you hear Ham-sham talking about it earlier? He is a being that already attained the highest level of enlightenment. He's a whole different breed of animal than the typical Llamas you've seen. He's special..."

"Yeh, Meows right Dandy" Qt chirped from behind. "This is the guy who developed the entire Monkeyian civilization. Helping you with your problem should be no problem at all for him."

"I don't have a problem. That's just what you two are calling it. If somebody can't feel down about their situation then they might as well not be feeling anything at all. Life has its ups, and life has its downs, that's just how it is guys. Just because I'm a happy guy, doesn't mean that I can't be sad too."

Dandy had come to a stop along the narrow path to the staircase. The lava around him bubbled and hissed and radiating heat intensely. Meow and QT turned around once they realized he had.

"for the past 20 years of my life i've been running around collecting these aliens, and getting them registered at some stupid space station, and for what? What have I actually accomplished all these years? There are Great Doctors that have developed cures for every disease imaginable. Mathematicians that quantify the square root of life and can multiply it to the 3rd exponent of everything. Engineers that have built super skyscrapers, space stations, and starships. What have I done? Nothing recognizable, nothing significant. My entire life has been a wild goose chase! Chasing odds and ends, that really in the end don't make any difference at all.

Dandy turned away from them and shook his fists and the boiling lava around them. "I wanted to be a bounty hunter" He said with a wispy smile on his face. "Running around the galaxy, catching bad guys in a badbutt starship. Blaster slinging in alleyways, high speed chases, drop kicking a dudes and then taking them to the slammer. I wanted to do that kinda stuff. To be one of them one day."

Dandy looked at them, and they could see a glimmer of excitement slowly fading from his eyes.

"But instead im a space alien hunter. There's no thrill in that! All we do is find unregistered Aliens and ASK them, if they will come with us so we can register them with some bs space alliance. No guns, no high speed chases. Just a polite invitation, and some paperwork. What is that Meow, QT? How can a man be satisfied in life if all he does is small insignificant things. He'll just end up being just that! A small insignificant thing. Those bounty hunters laughed at me. They laughed at me like I was a joke. And you know what Meow, QT? I believe them! I am a joke. My whole life's a joke."

And with that Dandy sat down on the ground, next to the boiling white hot lava. It wasn't long that he was sitting there that he realized that the lava was way too hot to sit by. So he stood up, and started to walk away.

Meow stood there looking at Dandy with his hands on hips.

"Well Dandy. I don't know how to answer all that. But I can tell you one thing. And that is we cannot stay down here in this volcano. So you can either come with me and QT up these stairs, so we can talk to that darn Lalalama and move on with our lives." Meow looked at Dandy in clear frustration. "So what's it gonna be?.."

Dandy looked back at meow with pure contempt. "I'm going back to the ship, you guys can go ahead and find the stupid lama yourselves. I'm through with this place, this planet, this stupid search for happiness".

Meow threw up his paws in defeat. "Ok, well that's just fine! But good luck finding your way back through the perpetual tunnel of darkness without a light. Or the sea of ice with the super blizzard. Or even getting back into the ship because it's LOCKED! and Qt is the only one with the keys!"

"The ship is locked?.." dandy said looking at loss for what to do.

"Yeh the ship is locked, and it's not going to be unlocked until Me Qt come back down this mountain with the Dali Lalalama. So you can either come with us, or wait for us there."

The space alien hunter stood there looking back down the path behind them, and then back at Meow. After weighing his options Dandy sighed and then continued up the path towards the staircase. "I'll come with you, but chances are that this Llama thing doesn't even exist. Let's just climb this mountain and see the dumb thing so we can finally leave this planet."

And with that the group proceeded onwards towards the staircase.


	11. Chapter 11

Climbing the staircase was slow moving difficult process. For Meow and Dandy it was easy enough, but for Qt, who had wheels for legs it was tedious work. Dandy took Qts left arm, while meow took the right, and they pulled him up step by step.

Qt being a lighter form of robot it wasn't extremely difficult pulling him up, but after the first 100 stairs Meow and Dandy were getting noticeably tired. Qt stopped them not too long after this.

"look Meow, you and Dandy should go on without me. Getting me up these stairs is going to be too difficult for you and Dandy. You guys aren't going to make it dragging me all the way up there."

They were well above the lava pool from the volcano, but they were still inside the cavern. Meow looked at Qt, with a pitiable frown. "What? Qt don't be like that. We have to make it to the sacred pasture together, the three of us so we can obtain spiritual enlightenment."

Dandy groaned from inside his thermosuit. "Ahhh don't be ridiculous Meow, there's no way we're gonna make it up this mountain pulling him along like this. You guys should have thought about this before we came."

"What do you know? You wouldn't have planned any differently. You wouldn't have planned at all, At least we got up to this point."

Qt interjected at this point.

"No meow, Dandy's right. There is no way that you guys are gonna make it up this mountain with me. And it's ok. It's not like I can obtain spiritual enlightenment anyways, I'm a robot. I have no spirit to enlighten in the first place.

You guys can be enlightened though. And you will! I believe in you."

Meow was overcome with emotion at the words of the small vacuuming unit. The beetlejucian threw himself on the robot, embracing him in a deep hug. "I promise Qt, after all this is over and we get the reward for bringing in this Dali whatever. I'll buy you the best enlightenment program known to sentient life. You'll be the smartest vacuum in the universe."

"Ahh, thanks Meow. Thats sounds, ah.. nice."

"You bet buddy, in the meantime you just wait here for us. We'll be back in no time"

And with that both Dandy, and Meow climbed upwards once more without their wheeled friend. It took them another two hours to reach the ceiling of the cavern. Once the staircase got to the ceiling, there was a tunnel in the rock where the staircase continued. Dandy and Meow climbed the stairs into the tunnel. The stairs here were dark and and covered with water. In the distance the light of day showed through what seemed like an opening in the tunnel. A few minutes later they figured out that that's exactly what it was. Snow poured in through the opening along with a fierce wind and the light of day. Meow and Dandy stepped out into the open air, and gazed around at an amazing sight.

They were a fair distance up the side of a huge mountain. The ground could be seen from where they were, but the mountainscape above them extended all the way into the clouds and looked like it would continue from there.

"Well" Meow said looking around them. "we're back in the snow again. But at least there's no blizzard."

"blizzard or no blizzard, this is still gonna be a pain in the ass. Do you see the size of this mountain? All the way up to the clouds!.. I should have brought my jetpack."

"There are no shortcuts in the path to enlightenment Dandy. Weren't you listening to anything those spiritual guidance counselors had to say?"

Dandy snorted and shook his head. Meow sighed and waved at Dandy "c'mon Dandy, this is the last leg of the race, let's finish strong."

Together they continued up the staircase which continued up the side of the mountain. The stairs were covered with snow, but large enough to fit both Dandy and Meow on their steps comfortably.

Side by side, the Beetlejucian and the spacer made there way up the face of the mountain. There were parts of the stairway that were more narrow than others. Other parts where the stairs have eroded away, and left big open gaps in the path. These parts were troublesome, but the two managed to get by them. Some of the stairs were also covered in ice, making crossing them especially dangerous. There were a couple times that Meow almost slipped.Luckily on these occasions, he was fast enough to reach out to the side of the mountain, and grab on before any real harm was done.

The two of them climbed all through the day into the night. Only stopping twice for sleep and rest. Sharing rations out of the hiking pack they had brought with them, they shared a meal of dried fruit and bread. They ate their rations, sat around watching the winds now softly blow the snow around them.

The mountain took three days to climb. about mid-afternoon of the first day they broke the clouds. The clouds extended below them drifted fluently like an endless sea of heavenly fluff. The sun was visible from this point, and the light made the climb a little bit warmer.

On the fourth day of climbing they finally reached the top of the mountain. Straggling up the last few final stairs, Dandy and Meow collapsed onto dried out straw-like grass. The wind blew fairly, and the mountain air was sharp and crisp with a sweet smell in it like sugar.

Meow slowly woke up to the feeling of something light being dropped on his face.After getting agitated enough to break his comfortable posture he opened his eyes to see a bundle of dry grass shaking from side to side only inches above his nose.


	12. Chapter 12

For a moment he was very confused until he saw that the bundle of grass was connected to elongated muzzle of a very furry head. Brown eyes stared back at meow from under long thick eyelashes. Meow pawed back the grass, staring at the Llama in astonishment."oh my Gosh, Its you!"

Meow exclaimed in broken disbelief.

~Hi! ~ The Llama said.

Or Meow thought that's what he heard the llama say. But the Llama's mouth never moved to make out the words. It just stood there and steadily chewed its bundle of grass. But somehow, looking into the Llama's eyes the word was registered there. Meow quickly got up and brushed the grass off of his face and body and looked around wildly for another source of the voice, but found nobody but the Llama.

~ You guys must have been tired. You slept for a long time. I thought you might never wake up. ~

"well we haven't eaten in days and we climbed so far, we were exhausted, we sorta just collapsed." Meow looked at Dandy sleeping on the ground besides him and gave him a good kick in the side. "Dandy wake up, i think we found him".

Dandy rolled over and mumbled something unintelligible without getting up or even opening his eyes. After a few more good kicks Dandy was awakened completely and brought himself to sit upright on the ground next to Meow.

"So your the Dali Lalalama" Meow said rubbing his chin with a beetlejuician paw and giving the creature an appraising look.

The Llama nodded its head ~ Yes, that is me, I am the Dali.. 'Lalalaaama'. Thats what they call me ay least, though it is very weird sounding. The essence of enlightenment, the progenitor of the

Monkeyan race, and spiritual guide to the universe. That is me. ~

"Well that's great, me and my friend here were looking for you, we've come so far so we could see you and get your help." Meow said sounding a little too excited.

~ really? Well most people that come up here climb up for that exact reason. Always wanting help from me, always coming to ask me to fix their problems. It does not surprise me that that is what you are here for.~ The Lama bent down and pulled a healthy helping of dried grass from the ground before raising his head again.

~ What is your problem friend? What is it that you need help with? ~

"It's my friend here, he's a really depressed. He got made fun of by some people he really looked up to and ever since he's been miserable. For the past three months me and my shipmate have tried all sorts of ways of making him feel better but nothing seems to work. We even came to Dali Rama to try and see if the treatments would help, but nothing here is doing anything either. We were hoping that somehow you might be able to cure him."

The Llama stared at Dandy munching his dried grass for a long time before answering. ~ That sounds terrible. So you came and took the 800 million fold path to see me, here, on the top of this gigantic mountain? A Little excessive, don't you think? ~

"Well nothing we tried was working, we've tried everything!! Nothing has made any difference in him at all, your really the last hope for us Mr. Dali La-la-lama sir."

The Llama stared at the duo for a moment longer finishing the tuft of grass that it had been chewing, and then spoke with its special telepathy again.

~ Well your determination is impressive. Many have attempted the 800 million fold path, and very few have ever actually made it here to my pasture. The ones that did make it, have been physically conditioned spiritual masters seeking to complete their long spiritual journey. But you guys came up here because your friend was having a bad day. You must be devoted to his happiness, very admirable. ~

Meow smiled sheepishly "Well yeh, sorta. Is that not good enough of a reason?"

The Llama shook his head ~ No, no. It's a wonderful reason! Just as good as any other in my opinion. If he's depressed by a worldly problem like getting made fun of, then complete spiritual enlightenment could most definitely be the cure to his sickness. ~

Meow yelled allowed in joy."So your saying that you can do it? You'll enlighten him?"

~ Sure hehe, why not? Just have him touch the fluff on the top of my head with the palm of his hand, and he will receive the knowledge of the universe. ~

The Llama took a step foward before adding, ~ But be warned now. This could be an extremely traumatic experience for someone who isn't prepared. ~

"Oh yeah, well he's prepared. Aren't you Dandy! There's not really much of anything Dandy isn't prepared for. He was born ready, for anything. That's one of Dandy's number one sayings."

"Well i still don't know what this is going to do for Me, i don't see how petting this things head is going to make me feel any better" Dandy muled, but got up anyways to comply with their request.

Standing in front of the llama he reached out his hand and placed it ontop of the llama's head.


	13. Chapter 13

He stroked it. For one exhilarating moment the wind blew on top of the mountain

sweeping through the golden dried grass, and Meow was left mystified as he watched Dandy in awe.

Dandy's face turned from one of unhappy reluctance to startled surprise. "What the heck..." He said. Looking at the Llama in disbelief.

"What?" Meow barked. "What is it? Do you know everything now? Are you Enlightened? How does it feel?"

"It feels, so soft..." "His hair, Meow it's the softest thing i've ever felt." Dandy stroked the Llama's head more vigorously.

ANger flooded the beetleguician's face. "Not his hair Dandy, the enlightenment!"

~ I don't think he received it. ~ The Llama said, enduring the frantic petting given by dandy. I'm sensing that he has not received my knowledge, he would

not be standing if he had.

"What?"

~Yes. This is definitely an odd scenario. It's never happened before that's for sure.~

Well how is this possible? I thought you were the essence of enlightenment, how is it your not able to enlighten him?"

The effects of enlightenment are very powerful, The only way for him to not receive is if..." The Llama gave Dandy a stare with the hint of a question in his eyes. "Have you met a being of enlightenment before friend?"

Dandy paused and looked up to the sky in thought for a moment. A second later he snapped his fingers in a sudden recollection. "Yeh, you know, now that i think about it i might have. A While back i met a guy that called himself The Narrator. He told me he was god and offered for me to take his place."

~Oh, the Narrator, sounds important. Though I've never heard of him.. ~

"You probably wouldn't have." Dandy replied apathetically. "He was kind've invisible, and in the middle of nowhere. He said he wanted me to sit in his chair for the rest of eternity to oversee the multiverse. And I told him he could go take his chair, and his multiverse down to the Galactic space dump and for all i care. I would never have been able to go to boobies again. Not that that matters now, i don't think i ever want to go back to boobies again."

"What is Boobies?"

"It's an exotic Space Bar we like to go to for food, drinks, and eye candy"

The Llama broke into laughter through telepathy. "You were offered a chance to become god and you denied it haha, for a space bar?" That's the most ridiculous thing i've ever heard.

But that explains why you are immune to my enlightenment."

"Why's that?" Dandy asked, sounding a little defensive. "Beings can only receive enlightenment once, and the universe can only give it once. If this Narrator offered it to you already and

you denied it, then that's it, you will never have the ability to be enlightened again. Your growth is stunted per say, at least on the level im talking about."

Another breeze blew by, this one bearing a slight chill, that felt kind've like the thought of walking through a blizzard, a perpetual maze, and then a active volcano before climbing a supermountain

and finding a legend just to figure out that it can't help you. Meow collapsed to the ground in defeat. "Well now im depressed" He said his gaze lowering itself to the ground.

Dandy came over and sat down next to Meow. "That sucks. I guess now, there's nothing left for us to do but to back to the city. How long does that ticket you bought us last?"

Meow groaned and threw his face in his hands. "It's only good for a week, and this is our sixth day here. By the time we get back to the city, our pass is going to have expired"

"Wow. Bummer, i was hoping on spending more time wandering around to different sorts of breathing classes when we got back. I'm so ready to get off this planet, i may not be the happiest person in the world right now. But being here sure isn't helping."

Meow trembled there for a second before jumping up excitedly from the ground. "No!" He shouted. "I refuse to let this trip be for nothing!" He rushed over to the Dali Lalalama and threw himself

at the feet of the Legendary beast. "Please, O Great La-la-la-la-lama, Please come with us so we can register you with the intergalactic registration center. Its would mean so much to us!"

~The intergalactic registration center? I've never hear of that before. What kind've place is it?~

Dandy made a scoffing sound. "It's the place where unidentified aliens get identified and certified to live in the galaxy. You know, for an all knowing spirit of enlightenment there's a lot that you

haven't heard of."

"My knowledge generally pertains to spiritual matters and facts of the universe. The details of actual material civilization evade me."

"Huh, is that so?.." Said Dandy scratching his chin looking mildly concerned.

~However I do love the physical world, and take trips there very often~

"Really? From all the way on top of this Gigantic mountain? How do you get there? Do you have a ship here somewhere?"

"A Ship? Ahh no. I use Astral projection. A meditation technique that allows me to leave my body for a time and travel the world as a spirit."

"So your like, half ghost or something?"

~You might be able to say that~

"Huh.. weird"

"Please, please, please Mr La-la-la-lama Sir. Come with us! We would pay for all your meals and you would stay in the biggest cabin aboard the aloha Oy."

~Free meals and a trip through red material space? That sounds nice. Let me think about it for a second~ The Llama bent down to the ground and pulled up another dried tuft of grass. He stood there chewing for a minute in complete silence. Once he had finished he turned back to Meow and shining what seemed like a smile through his telepathy. ~Sure! I'll come with you guys, i'd love to see the rest of the galaxy first hand.~

Meow hopped around excitedly "Alright!" Great!

I'm sure you'll love your time aboard the aloha oy . You'll get to see space, the stars and planets. It'll be worth it, i promise."

~Haha, sounds nice, lead the way Meow~

Dandy, Meow and the La-la-lalama began to make their way down the stairs of enlightenment. Traveling down the mountain taking half the time that it took to get up it. From the time that they left the top of the mountain till they reached the blizzard engulfed stretch of stairs, they talked with the Llama. The spirit of enlightenment was very interested in the happenings of the material word. The Lama chatted with them the entire time, asking questions about Dandy Meows world, telling them stories of his life and jokes that he had memorized over the centuries of his existence, although the jokes he told were strictly from the genre of spiritual enlightenment. Neither Dandy or Meow found any of them funny.

A day and half into the hike back down the mountain, they were overtaken by the blizzard. Because of the furiously howling wind, neither dandy or meow could respond to what the La-la-lama had to say. So the conversation ceased for the rest of the way down.


	14. Chapter 14

At the end of the second day of their journey down, they reached the mouth of the volcanic cave.

~whats that?~ The Lalalama asked as they approached what looked like a small black boulder in the middle of the staircase. "I have no idea" Meow said, squinting his eyes in the heated air to see."Looks like a big rock. It wasn't here when we were going up." As they got closer, they could see that it was actually Qt covered in ash and soot. He had turned on his conservatory mode to save his battery life. The moment the group walked up to him, a motion sensor in his occulatory visor signaled him auto reboot. A moment later his digital eyes switched on into their full glowing blue plates."Glad your still here QT" Meow said slapping the robot on the top of his head." I was worried i might have to drag you back"

"That shouldn't be necessary Meow, I've recharged enough of my battery to make it back to the ship without any trouble.. "

" Qt pause and shifted his digital gaze to the Lalalama standing behind Dandy. "Is that the legendary monkeyan deity that we were looking for??"

Meow crossed his arms and puffed his chest with a triumphant grin. "Yeh. That's him alright. And he's coming with us back to the alien registration center to get identified."

~Hello~ the lalalama said to Qt. ~Nice to meet you~

"Wow" said Qt. "How did you guys get him to agree to that? I would never think a being as important as him would be willing to go get registered."

~I've never been the type of Llama to turn down a offer to gain first hand experience of the unknown~

"Even though he's a legend, he's a very humble guy. Alot like you Qt, you two should get along great. Which is good because he's going to need someone to talk to on the ride back home." Dandy commented from behind Meow. And then in a lower tone, "I sure as heck don't want him talking to me the whole time".

Qt's virtual led face switched to his surprised expression. "He talks?"

Meow and Dandy exchanged puzzled looks.

"Ahh, He's been talking to you this entire time". Meow said.

"Really, i haven't heard a thing, but he is giving me a weird look. I wonder why I can't hear him."

~it's probably because he's not a living organism. I can communicate with beings only if they have a organic mind for me to reach them with.~

"So you can't talk to robots?"

~No, I suppose not. I've never met one in person before. There aren't too many on Dali Rama from what i know.~

"Well it's not like you guys really needed to talk anyways,.. we should get going. We need to get back to Shangrila-la-laa before our rent is up at our hotel."

The group traveled back across the narrow passage of rock leading through the lava lake at the bottom of the mountain. Qt being extra careful not to run into any loose rock or large cracks that might have him slip. The lama trotted happily along behind them, as if he were in his paster happily strolling through his grass. Straight through the lava, and back up the slope leading to the entrance of the tunnel. At the mouth of the tunnel Qt turned on his headlight and lead the way into the darkness.

~So dark in here!~The Llama said, sounding surprised.

"Yeh, that's why they call it the tunnel of eternal darkness. It's incredibly long. We'll be walking through these tunnels for miles before we get to the outside." Meow said with a hint of a wine in his voice.

~Exciting. I had no idea all of this was down here. Crazy the things you can learn from strangers.~

And they did walk for miles. 40 miles by the count of Qt's internal odometer. They would travel length by length, stopping every now and then to take a break, and talk about the trip back home and the alien registration center.

Eventually they got out of the tunnel and into the blizzard that raged around the mountain of enlightenment. The llama was surprised at the existence of the storm as well, having never seen what the mountain was like below the clouds.

~No wonder I have had so few visitors of the centuries. ~ The llama said with an inaudible laugh

~I always thought that people were scared of the teachings i had to give them. ~

Meow sighed. "No, its just damn near impossible to get to you. Have you ever thought if relocating? You might help more people if you weren't at the top of a death trap."

The lama looked sharply at meow, with an air of concern in its telepathy.

~Relocating? I've always lived on that mountain. Since the day I was conceived in the cosmic belly of life, I don't think I could ever move from this mountain and be happy somewhere else. I certainly couldn't leave my grass behind.~

"Oh yeah, What would life be without grass.." Meow muled sarcastically.

"I'm so hungry that I could actually go for some grass right now. C'mon guys, we need to get to this ship before I pass out from starvation." Dandy whined from behind.

After tying themselves together again with a rope, the gang headed out into the blizzard across the open ice. Qt led the way as the blizzard completely blocked any sort of sight, using his navigation system to take them in the direction of the Aloha Oy.

It took them awhile, but eventually they reached the ship. Dandy had used his ship key to automatically start the Aloha Oy when Qt had said they were getting close. By the time they got inside, the ship was a furnace and the engines were primed for lift off. Qt offered to fly them back while the rest of the crew ate and rested. To that Dandy and Meow wholeheartedly agreed.

Meow gave the Lalalama a tour of the ship while Dandy prepared various prepared foods. Ramen and fish crackers for Meow, a microwavable hawaiian space pizza for himself and a bowl of prepackaged salad for the enlightened one.

Meow and the lalalama arrived to the ships eating area, the sofa, just and Dandy was done preparing all the food. The two space alien hunters sat down and attacked their food like a pair of hungry dogs, while the daintily picked at his salad. The llama attempted to talk to the two but there wasn't enough space in between bites for wordy conversation. So the Llama just talked about himself, and the friends he was hoping to see in shangri la. After finishing their food, both of them played back on the couch and immediately fell asleep.

"Alright guys we're back in the city, it's time to wake up". Qt said nudging both Dandy and meow softly with his extendable vacuum arms. He opened his eyes slowly to see the Qt positioned only a foot away from his face. Lalalama watching some sort of nature documentary on the television in front of the sofa.

"Alright, let's get back to the hotel so we can check out, and get the heck off this planet!" Meow said looking like he was anxious to get back to the registration center.

When they stepped out onto the street outside of the docking platform, they were greeted by a river tourists flowing steadily down the street. "What is this?" Meow asked in a gasp.

"I have no idea, but there were alot of ships parked in the docking bay. There must be some sort of event going on. " Qt said from behind meow, scanning over all the different aliens that were crossing their path.

~I believe this is the Dali Raman Festival of Peace and happiness~ The Llama said through his telepathy.

"Festival of peace and happiness? They never said anything about this on the brochure"

~It's one of the longest running festivals in Dali Raman culture I believe. They have it every year around this time, I had completely forgotten.~ The Llama said with enthusiasm. ~Last time I visited through astral projection they were having the festival. It's a lovely event. Filled with free food, happy people, and there's fireworks at the end of the night.~

"So all these people are here for the free food and fireworks. Figures.. "

Meow was wondering why there had been so many ships in the docking bay, this must have been the reason why.

"Oh-oh Meow. I've always wanted to see a fireworks display! Do you think we could stay and watch them before we go?" Qt chirped from besides the beetlejuician.

"I don't know QT. Our reservation ends tonight and I'm not sure if they will allow our ship to stay docked in the Shipping bay much longer. Plus we have to get the La-la-lama registered as fast as possible."

"Festival of Peace and happiness, pfft.." Dandy grouched kicking a stretch of the wall. "More optimistic mumbo jumbo, how hard is it to figure out that stuff like that only goes as far as you can throw it. Peace and happiness isn't for everyone."

Meow turned around, to look back at Dandy. He had an ugly look on his face again, and a general air of not wanting to be in the place he was currently standing.

"Oh don't tell me you're still depressed" Meow whined.

"I never said I was depressed, you've been saying that. My perspective on life has changed, that's all. The happy go lucky side of life that i had before has been shot down. And now that it has, I can see the Galaxy for what it really is. A giant mess of chaos where there's no telling whether you'll be happy one second with a smile on your face, or chained to a comet headed into the galaxies largest black hole. I'm not depressed meow, I can just see now that the world isn't all sunshine and flowers."

"When have you ever been chained to a comet? And what does all this have to do with being made fun of at a space bar?"

Dandy turned away with a dark pout, looking at the wall rather than his friend.

"Ugh, Never mind Meow. Let's just get checked out of this lame hotel so we can get off this planet. "

"Ahh guys, we should probably cover up the Lalalama with something. If the monkeans know he's here they're probably going to make a big deal out of it."

Meow took a gander back at the Lalalama who was still standing behind them inspecting the crowd of people passing by. "Oh yeh huh?.. You're probably right. And if he gets carted off to the grand temple, then we'll never get that reward for his registration." Meow walked over to a pile of boxes and trash on the corner of the alleyway. After rummaging through the pile for a few minutes he procured from it a large colorful blanket.

"Here we can use this" He said, lifting up the blanket displaying beautiful monkeyan artistic design.

Meow walked over to the Lalalama and presented it to him. "We need you to wear this Mr.enlightened one"


	15. Chapter 15

~Wow, that's really nice! Where did you get that? ~  
" Heheh, Don't worry about that alright? Just keep this over your head while we are out here in shangrilalala so you don't get kidnapped. Understand?"   
The Enlightened one peered round with wide bright eyes, excited to be being disguised in such a way. 

  
~Ahh yes, I think so. The Monkeyans do tend to get carried away whenever i visit hehe. A disguise! I didn't think about that at all, what a great idea! ~  
  
They threw the blanket of the Llama, and stepped in line with the rest of the crowd on the city street with the blanket covered Llama tailing behind. For a minute staying together was almost as tough as it was fighting through the blizzard that surrounded mountain of enlightenment, but after they got out of the entrance of the docking bay, the road widened up into a broad walkway. 

Lengths of luminous golden-white cloth were strown up amongst the tops of the temples and along the lamp posts lining the streets, casting a golden hue on the darkening evening air.   
The streets had also become populated with stalls and booths where Monkeyans were setting up Food, Merchandise, and all sorts of other things for the Festival. The booths were also covered in cloth and glowing white ornaments.   
  
Qt asked a few times to stop at some of stalls they were passing so he could look at some of the merchandise they were setting up, but Meow insisted that they continue on straight to the palace of sleep and rest.   
  
Along the way Hamsham, appeared out of nowhere, and began barraging the group with questions. 

"Where have you been my friends? Are you ok? Are you still going to be continuing with you treatment here in Shangrilalala? What is that person person behind you doing with a blanket over their head?"  
Meow was not interested in giving detailed answers to any of these questions. "We went out to take some pictures of Dali Ramas scenery." He answered, continuing his march towards the Temple of sleep and rest. "We are all fine, but our two week pass is over and we won't be extending our treatment. We're leaving tonight Hamsham. Thank you for everything you've done for us buddy, you've been great." Completely ignoring the last question.   
  
"You are leaving?! But why? You have not finished your treatment! My friend Dandy is obviously still depressed" Hamsham asked with heavy concern in his voice taking a quick sidelong look at Dandy, who was visibly not happy about something.   
  
"Dandy will be fiiine, he just lost his confidence is all. After we register a couple more high profile aliens, he'll be back to his old stupid happy self. And we already have one of those alie-" Meow caught himself mid sentence almost letting slip to their guide who the mysterious person behind the blanket was.   
  
But if Hamsham did notice the slip up, he took no curiosity to its meaning.   
"Oh, well that is nice to hear my friend." He said in a softer tone. "I did know that your reservation was up today, and was concerned that you would not be back in time to renew it. The overflow charges here can get expensive. I am glad that you are back, and in one piece".   
  
Hamsham accompanied the group all the way to the Grand Palace of sleep and rest. Filling them in with parting information about Dali Raman therapeutic merchandise. Like the "Amazing Self Automated Dali Raman Back massager" and the "Famous Dali Raman Squishy squeeze stress toy". He was particularly keen in describing the profound effect that wei fu's audio book collection had on anybody that would listen. He spent much of the time talking about this.   
  
During this entire time, the Lalalama did not communicate at all with Meow. And as far as Meow could tell, he hadn't said anything to Dandy or Hamsham either. For this Meow was grateful, but Hamsham's presence still put Meow's nerves on end. Here was Hamsham, going on about the legendary Wei-fu, and walking behind them was Wei-fu's Master, a recognized demi-deity to Dali Raman religion. If Hamsham figured this out, the La-la-lama would be whisked away to some temple or another locked inside a safe of some sort, and they could kiss their 2 million wulong reward goodbye.   
  
Meow only hoped that the soft clopping noises coming from under the blanket would not give the creature away. But it wasn't long before they reached the Palace of sleep and rest. Hamsham waited outside while they went in to get their things and check out.   
  
The same concierge who had serviced them their entire time in Sharngrila was behind the desk watching guests diligently from behind its high countertop. Meow quickly walked up to the desk and slapped a paw on the counter. "Siihwee, we are checking out! And we need another room key because we lost the one you gave us on our trip.. ".Meow declared to the small Monkeyan, who's name he had learned after repeated instances of necessary involvement.   
"Oh my, that makes the fifteenth time I have had to replace your room key. You my friends should learn to take better care of your belongings." He chuckled reaching down below the desk and bringing out a keycard he handed it to them with a wide smile. "Here you go my friend. If you will leave your packed baggage at the front of the room, i will have some bag runners come to pick it up and loaded onto your ship, Probably before you can even get back hehe" The mMonkeyan smiled and winked. "Thank you for your time here with us in Shangrilalalaa and on behalf of all the staff here, I would like to wish you peace, happiness, and safety through all your travels."

"Ah, Swhihee your the best." Meow said with watery eyes. Swihee had been an invaluable resource and confidant while the Dandy crew had been staying in the grand palace hotel, especially for Meow. Parting with the cordially humored Monkeayan behind the giant hotel desk was slightly heartbreaking for him. "We wish you peace and happiness too Swihee. Hope you don't have to deal with any more idiots like us for a long time."

The monkeyan laughed and shook his head and Meow smiled a little over the truth of the statement. With that the Gang continued to the elevators on the far end of the lobby. Qt clicked to call the elevator, and it was only a moment before one of them arrived. The group climbed on and as soon as the doors closed, the Lalalama broke into conversation. 

"You guys really should rethink going to the festival. It's a once in a lifetime event for sure. Id probably say it among the top 5 things that i've experienced in my life." 

"The top five, Huh?" Grumbled Meow, whilst throwing assortments of socks from one of the hotel dressers to his suitcase laying in the middle of the floor. "What made it so great?"

~Ahh, well. For starters i dont think theres a more happy celebration anywhere. All of the Monkeyans get really into the festivity, throwing confetti all over the place, singing songs together, dancing all over the place. I think they might put something in the pure water whenever the night of the festival comes around, because those Monkeyans get crazy wild.~

"Well as much as i like singing, I'm not that great of a dancer. I'm going to need more than that and some confetti to be convinced to stay another night."

"Oh Meow you guys are talking about the festival? I wanna go Meow, i really do!" Qt chirped waving his vacuum arms in the air for emphasis. 

~It would be worth your guyses time for sure, I can promise you that.~

"I wanna go, i wanna go, i wanna gooo!"

Moew rolled his eyes and sighed concedingly and a second later the hotel elevator made a chiming sound and the doors opened, revealing an abandoned hotel suite floor.   
  
For the entire duration of the crew packing their things, the matter of whether they would go to the festival or not was discussed. The Dali Lalalama selling the idea to meow while Qt blindly agreed to every reason he gave for going. Meow listened for the a period of time, and finally when he was sick of the persistence of the two festival loving entities in the room, he gave in.

"Alright we'll go" He shouted, throwing his used swimming shorts into his suitcase. "Just let me get the rest of this stuff packed in peace, and we'll stay. At least long enough to get some food, and maybe see the fireworks." "Yay!!!" Qt and the Lama said in unisance. "But after the fireworks we're leaving, at top speed back to the Registration center, ok?" 

"Ay-Ay Captain Meow Sir" Qt chirped. 

~Sounds good to me~ The lalalama said, adorning his excited smile again. 

They came back down the elevator and found Hamsham outside waiting patiently on them."Well HamSham" Meow said in a departing voice. "This is where we have to say goodbye. We really appreciate everything you've done for us while here. We wouldn't have gotten very far without you."

HamSham Beamed his wide smile and and clasped his hands together in a prayerful gesture, and made a slight bow.You are very welcome my friend meow, i was happy to help. If i had not have been helping you, there would be no reason for me to be your guide, would there? Hehe.." Hamshams laugh once again showed his overly happy demeanor that seemed common to all Monkeyans. "Did you enjoy your time here in Shangri-la-la-la?" He questioned. "Ahh yeah, Duh" Meow said in a sarcastic tone. "I've never been pampered so completely before! The food, the scenery, the comfortable beds. I'm sure that i'll never take another bath like the one i took here. Or sniff anything like those medicinal herbs Teiwoo made for us."

"And i don't think i've ever experienced such a high quality charger as the one you guys have here."

"Well that is good, i am glad that you at least enjoyed yourself a little. I hope and pray that my friend Dandy does get better, and that you all may find lasting peace and happiness within the great spirit of Rahm" 

And with that Hamsham made another bow, and was off quickly disappearing into the crowd of festival guests. Meow watched him go with a little tinge of sadness for their Monkeyan Guide. He had shown them practically everything there was to know about Dali Rama, and always did it with the most optimistic orientated spirit that Moew had ever seen any anybody. It was sad to see him go, but on the other hand they were now out of the immediate danger of losing the Lalalama, or the reward for his registration. 

"Alright, let's go get some food first" Meow said to the others, "i'm still hungry from our trip up that mountain, and that food that was being set out when we came in smelled delicious. We need to find those stalls!." 

Dandy, Meow, Qt, and the Lalalama proceeded up the packed streets until they began to near the food stands that they had seen before. 

They could smell the stands before they could see them. Strong scents of prepared vittles drifted downward through the festival streets. "Wow," Meow said eyes bulging and nostrils flaring to pull in the deliciously diverse aromas circulating in the air. "That. Smells. Amazing! I have to get some of whatever im smelling, my stomach demands it!." But as they reached the plaza where the food stands had been set up they realized that getting to the food was not going to be as easy as smelling it was. Huge crowds had filled the main plaza gathered in lines in front of every stall that was open. it wasn't long after however before they saw lines for the food. 

Hundreds of festival goers maned the front of each stand yelling and chatting in different languages. blocking out the entire view the stands they could see they're getting any food was going to take a considerable amount of time. "oh my gosh" Qt hummed "I guess this was the wrong way to come get some food." meow scowled turning around to the blanket covering the law lalama "you said there was going to be delicious food why didn't you tell us there was going to be a gigantic line?" the llama pawed the ground with his hoof from underneath his colorful quilt 

~hehe, I'm sorry. I forgot about that detail of the festival. it is a very popular Festival though so you might expect that it would be crowded like this.~

Meow looked around the Plaza that was absolutely overflowing with guests. "great! by the time we get out of one of these lines festivals going to be over.." and the added squeamishly with tears of hunger in his eyes 

"and that food smells like heaven, this is so unfair!" right then, out of one of the crowds stood near them appear to Chubby monkeyan in full Festival regalia. In his arms he was carrying a tray loaded with sort of Festival dish on it.

"Peace in Ram. Happiness in Ram",the monkey chanted in a silvery voice barely audible above the clamor created by the crowd.

"Try some of Dali Ramas candied vegetable sticks and I'm sure you will find happiness in ram!"

Meow was on the monkey and faster than a Kairishan Eagle-Sparrow on a Tridekkion shrew mouse. 

"Can I get some of those vegetable sticks?" The monkey and turned and found meow hovering over him with hungry eyes. He seemed only delighted to comply to the request "of course my friend, of course of course, here I have three vegetable sticks just for you". The Monkeyan held the vegetable sticks out and meow snatched them up. since Qt could have none and dandy was still in a mood, Meow was free to eat all three vegetable sticks which he did so with considerable speed. Even before the monkeyan had stepped away meow was asking for more. The chubby monkeyan shook his head, and presented his presently empty tray. "I'm sorry friend. I do not have anymore of them left to give to you. But.." He said receedingly, "if you go up the street a little, past the games and the clothing booths there is a vegetable stick stand that can give you as many as you can eat. Without hurting yourself of course" The monkeyan added with a chuckle. 


	16. Chapter 16

So the gang fought through the hoard of guests in the plaza and proceeded up the street. The festival was definitely in full swing by this point. There were alien children running all about with various dali raman festival toys. Guests walking around with festive glow-clothe, and scented stalks of a native plant of dali rama said to be blessed by their deity. All of them in a state of exaggerated exuberance by the looks of it.

"I wonder what has the people so happy" Dandy said, with a tinge of annoyed jealousy in his voice. "they act like they've never been to a festival before in their lives".

"It might be the water" The LalaLama communicated from behind them. "During the festival of happiness Monkeyans mix a strong herbal remedy into the dali raman pure water. It is supposed to bring out the happiness of Rahm that lies deep in the spirit. That and those sticks of Wishhee that people are waving around. Those are also supposed to have aeromatic spiritually involved medicinal properties.

"So they're all drunk?.. Shh, figures." Dandy griped.

"all in the spirit of the festival of course" The Llama responded.

It wasn't long before they reached the original vegetable stick stand that the chubby monkeyan had been told them about. Two giant pots sat on the front of the stand maned on each side by a Monkeyan. The food stand was called "Rahms branches" supposedly named for the vegetables stuck to a miniature wooden spear. Apart from the great smell of the stand, the most attractive part about the part of the stand was that there was no line. Meow was quickly in front of the boothe asking the stand attendants for one of each flavor of vegetable stick. The two attendants quickly set about organizing the sticks that he picked out, lifting the heavy pot lids to reveal pots absolutely full of row upon row of sticks, heavy steam rich in flavor gushed out everytime the lifted a pot lid. (There was a menu above or below the stand title, name that gave a list of different types of sticks and what they are made of)

A minute later, they were all standing on the edge of the city road, leaning against the guardrail, beyond which was the lower terrace of the city, also filled with festival guests.

After meow had devoured the set of vegetable sticks he had gotten from the stand, he turned to the rest of the group.. "so what do we do now?" QT asked.

"I guess enjoy the festival" Meow said. "i wanted to get a look at some of those merchandising stands that we passed a minute ago.. maybe i could find something to send back to my parents." "Hey, what's that sound?" Meow asked perking his ears, and looking around.

Floating around in the background of the incessant roar of the festival crowd, there was a light bell noise.

"What noise? If your talking about the crowd I'm sure you know where that's coming from" Qt said following his searching gaze.

"No, that bell sound.. can you hear it?" Meow said looking towards the area they had just come from. They all stood quietly listening for a minute.

A light tinging noise was being made, amidst the rest of the clamour of the festival.

"ohuu, i hear it too Meow,.." Qt said "it sounds like a bell of some sort"

The tinging noise got stronger as they approached a nearby plaza in front of the Temple of Meditation. They looked across the street and were surprised to see a group of four monkeyans had set up a row of metallic chyme bells gleaming a silvery brass color in the festival illuminations. One of the monkeyans dressed in festival attire and sporting a funny festival hat on his head was now tapping two of the smaller chymes lightly with a tufted stick.

*Ting TingTingTing*

~ooouu, They are about to perform!~ He said, the excitement bubbling up in his telepathy. ~Monkeyans are famous for their chyme music, I've seen these kind of performances before, this place is about to get very popular..~ Communed the Lalalaama from underneath his colorful covering.

*ting ting tinggg. tingy ting tingytingy tingg tinggg.*

"These guys make music with a bunch of windchimes?.." Dandy asked, giving the group of monkeyans a disdainful eye. "I thINk those are the SAme bells that they used in the Temple of MUsic" observed Qt from the side.

another monkeyan stepped in front of a larger set of bells, and struck the side of one of the sizeable chimes with a tufted mallet. *Doooonggg*S

This sound rang out loud and clear, and made the crowd around them all turn and look to see what was going on.

Dongggg, ting tingy tingg tinggg Dongggg

the two monkean s began play each of their respective set of bells. From one side tones immenated heavier brass notes and the other side floated silvery metallic light tones, the tune dancing back and forth in a synchronization.

Then the other two monkeyans had finished setting up their sets of chymes, and all four of them sounded out the different pitched bells.

Ding dong ding dong ting tingity tingy, ting tingaling ting tong tong tong donggg

There was nobody in the immediate crowd that did not turn to see what was going on once they had begun to play. And a crowd began to gather around some cheering and whistling. Two of the younger alien guests from the crowd began to dance, and several others joined in.

[the rest of the night was spent playing festival games and looking at merchandise being sold at the festival souvenir stores. Qt and the lalalama played dozens of games in which they each won a prize. Meow, spent most of his time gathering festival giveaway items and sampling food from food stands. Dandy tagged along with the group and for the most part remained silent and gloomy, seemingly his new adopted attitude towards life.

The rest of the night was full of activity items were either free give away items, or trinkets of things so cheap that the monkeyans might as well have been giving them away. Meow took full advantage of this, and went on a souvignier hunting shopping spree that kept him occupied for a good amount of time. Meanwhile Dandy took QT and the Lalalama to the game stand section to take a tty at some of the festival games that were offered. First they played a spinning wheel game called the wheel of enlightenment where players could try try to throw a sort of ball into holes bored into a fastly spinning golden wheel]

Far into the festival, monkeyan caterers filed around streets calling out to the guests to warn them that the firework demonstration was about to begin over the grand Valley of enlightenment. The guests began to gather at the edges of the streets lining the edge of the Valley terraces. Meow Qt, The lalalama and Dandy who had conveniently traversing the distance of the bridge of enlightenment(The largest bridge of shangrilalala that connected the Weast mountains to the Est mountains), were conveniently positioned right above the said valley, of where the fireworks were to take place. And themselves made their way over to the ledge of the Festival goes all along the roads of shangrilalalaa began to gather on the sides of the terraces. After only a few minutes it started to become clear as to the group how many people had come to the festival. Of those gathering to see the demonstration, many of them were wearing the glowclothe that was being sold at all the festival merchandise booths, giving the impression that the city streets had transformed into a rivers of softly glowing candles.

Wow, there's more people here than i thought said meow looking out to the hundreds of thousands who had appeared on the sides of all the mountains.

~It's a big festival as you can see ~said the lalalama ~now you know why i enjoy coming every year. it's nice to see so many people gather for a good purpose. ~

Ohh look down there!! said Qt, pointing down to the valley below, where there was a group of parasial tents set up with boxes and crates set up all around. "That must be where they are launching the fireworks from".

Dandy took an distastefully appraising look down at the small village of parasails in the valley below. "Their making a really big deal about these fireworks, i don't see what the big deal is about. They're just fireworks, it's not like we haven't seen them any differently on any other planet."

~oh but you've never seen monkeyan fireworks though l. They really are spectacular. They say that they are unlike any other fireworks in the galaxy. Something about the way they mix the chemicals that go into them. I personally don't understand anything about them, but i have seen them. I think theyre beautiful~

"is that so" Dandy said with doubt layered in his voice, "Well i've been to a hundred fireworks demonstrations, and i've never seen one that was any different than the first demonstration i went to". He waffed his hand around in the air a few times, "and the first one was less than impressive.. just a bunch of loud noises, a little bit of glitter, and a bunch of smoke. I don't understand all this hype"

As the group waited there for several more moments the crowds around the cities roads became more and more populated with guests. The noise from the immediate crowd around them was absolutely deafening, as the numbers on the bridge had swelled considerably probably due to the great vantage point the bridge had over the valley. About twenty minutes before the fireworks were said to have been to start, Dandy without warning started to feel around his jacket and pants frantically. "What's wrong?" Qt asked, turning to his friend.

"My shades." Dandy responded, "My favorite shades are gone."

"You might have left them back in the hotel suite." Qt offered, knowing Dandy was famous for leaving things in his bedroom.

Dandy groaned once he had checked all the pockets of his pants and jacket, "Which means i'm going to have to walk all the way back there, aghh" he groaned again, "just another fluke in the heap of failure that calls itself my life. Why is Destiny so cruel?"

~Destiny is only another way of saying the future you are naturally capable of making for yourself. Being naturally capable of failure is nothing special hehe a lot of people are. So i would think there is nothing abnormally cruel about your destiny.. so far as i can tell hehe.~

Dandy gave the Llama a contemptuous stare "ok, well whatever" he said and then turning to the others "I have to go back and get my sunglasses, I'll meet you guys back here if im back before the fireworks end. If not, i'll meet you guys back at the ship."

And with that Dandy took off into the crowd in the direction of the Grand temple of sleep and rest.


	17. Chapter 17

It took him awhile to navigate through the ceaseless tides of guests on the bridge and other streets. But eventually, Dandy made his way back to the first initial street that lead to the Grand Temple. From there, there were less people along the road, and he could travel without much trouble. Eventually he came to the Grand temple courtyard, with its Amber Marble Stone glowing once again like an jewel encased fire in the lights of the festival. As Dandy approached the brass doors, they swung open held open by one of the Monkeyan doormen. "Oh thanks Braam-ay," Dandy mumbled at the Doorman, waving his hand in thankful greeting. "Wait, friend dandy! I did not--" the monkeyan did not get to finish his sentence before The Spacer ran headfirst into some sort of object. There was a splashing sound and then a howling noise coming from the object he had bumped into.

"Ahhhhhghh!!!! My drink!!!" The object screeched stumbling about to catch its balance.

Dandy looked down to see an old man staring happlessly at his now empty Jumbo sized martini glass.

The Man was wearing a Green Button-up Shirt with violet and cyan blue flowers on it, and just for an instant, Dandy could have sworn Duster callaway was standing in front of him again.

"You dumb, stuck up punk! Where do you get off thinking flying through a door thats being opened for someone else is a good idea?"

Dandy stared at the old man unsure of what to say, unable to shake the image of Duster from his mind.

"The door was being opened for me! and you just waltz in willy nilly, You could have killed me! You brainless pile of spacewaste! And oh, what you did do! You spilt my Lemon-peel Hibiscus Gin! Do you know how expensive this stuff is? It's the most expensive drink at the Hotel Bar, and you spilled it! I swear, it people like you that ruin the lives of everybody your around.

But Dandy wasn't listening, suddenly he had snapped back to years and years before , when he was training to become a bounty hunter with Duster Callaway.

~Shining bracelet, bleached and polished teeth, and flashing aviator sunglasses. Standing over him heckling him over every little thing. "You don't wash the dishes good enough, look at this bowl! There's food all over it! all you had to do was scrub it a little and it would have come off.. your not really good at anything are you kid?"~

The Old Man's temper only seemed to rise as he continued to rant. "Its a wonder that space punks like you are ever allowed out into the galaxy in the first place. With your fancy useless hair, and fancy useless clothes!"

~"That bounty had his face posted up on every magazine and billboard in every corner of the galaxy for an entire year! How did you not recognize him when he passed you by? I told you to give me the signal whenever you saw him"

"I don't know Duster, i guess i just didn't get a good look at him.."

"That's not much of an excuse, he was on the front cover of that last issue of Bounty Hunters exclusive that i told you to look at! But you were to busy looking at that Space Fashion Hair magazine weren't you?... ugh, you really are pretty terrible. you know that kid?"~~~

"What does it all amount to? What comes of it, huh? Nothing! And that's what you'll spend your life doing, nothing! because that's what people like you do best."

~"It blew it up!? What do you mean it blew up?!"

"I dont know baby, some sort of alarm system came on with flashing lights and a siren. So i tryed to shut it off by pressing some buttons on the controls, and then all of the sudden it started saying self destruct sequence initiated. So i got out and ran for it."

"Did you get the Datachron of the RedWingGang member list?"

"No, Baby, I told you. I tried getting before and couldn't break the code."

"Dammit Dandy! Do you know how much money was on that list!? I would be the richest bounty hunter in the galaxy if we had of secured that information. You blew it up! How in the world can one person be so incredibly useless as you are Dandy!? How? I swear if i had a wu-long for every bounty head that youve screwed up, id have more money than if hadnt of just screwed up this one! Your terrible!~

~Your worthless~

~useless~

~there isn't a spot of intelligence in you~

~you couldn't crack a banana peel with a Industrial Laserknife~

There have loads of great people in the universe, Doctors, Engineers, Mathematicians. But your not any of those people! I know it! just by looking at you. Your a loser. People like you are useless! And you wanna know what i really think?! I dont think youll ever be good at anything ever.. that's what i think"

~i dont think youll ever be good at anything ever.. that's what i think.~

Just a minute ago, as he was walking towards the Temple of sleep, Dandy had the general feeling of overwhelming numbness in regards to the state of his life. This was part of the reason he didn't notice the man as walked through the open door, and the same reason it took several minutes for him to comprehend that he was being interrogated.

But the old man's words rung in tune with Dusters hecklings, and it struck a chord in dandy that was impossible to ignore. "You will never be good at anything.. ever.."

Something deep inside Dandy, came alive when he heard the synchronized statement being made, and suddenly the ice fortress of depression that had fallen around himself, exploded into water vapor as a fiery spirit burst into life.

Not good!!? Your saying that i'm no good? Listen to this, you coot,

Ive..[List the things that Dandy has done, sure to splice in deeds from past episodes with spiritual generalized motifs, for ambient effect...]

Your looking at a living definition of good! You say you can tell just by looking at me?.. Thats Space Banannas Baby... Under this hair and these stylish clothes, is a whole universe of depth. Just an inch of me might as well contain all the beauty of the cosmos... I've got more soul and spirit than anyone else in the galaxy, and i'm funnier than any comedian you'll ever meet, and i can dance like you wouldn't believe...you couldn't tell me that by taking a quick glance at me.. don't you know that? ...all this time i've been holding my dreams and expectations on something out of reach. But listening to you say it now, Im wondering how it was so important that i reached those expectations. Becoming a bounty hunter, becoming just like Duster Callaway and his shiny star bracelet.. It was just something dumb that i dreamed up when i was a little kid, and fantasised about. I don't need to be a bounty hunter to a star baby.. I don't even need to be a space alien hunter. Im a Star just like how i am now, and i always will be. Im Dandy Baby..."

"Your what?" the old man scoffed looking wildly at the young spacer.

"Not what Baby, who. I said im Dandy Baby, the brightest star in all the known galaxies near and far.." Dandy said getting into the spirit of thr declaration and throwing in a "I do care who you are, i just know you need to replace my festival martini or i'm going to have you reported to the Dali Raman authorities!" and pointing angrily down at the wet splotch on the ground.

It was at this point, the door monkeyan stepped in to console the angered elderly guest. "Please please my friend Mr.Mulberri... all drinks served at the Grand temple of rests refreshment bar are 100% free of charge, there is no reason to be angry"

"He spilled my drink! there should be some sort of penalty for that. A fine, or punishment, or something!"

"Well there isn't, Mr.Mulberry," Dandy teased with a glee filled grin, "You heard the monkey man, the drinks are free, so there's no reason to get your tights in a bundle."

The guest looked so angry that he might of blasted off right there like one of the Dali raman fireworks. "This- this- er, ah, this is an outrage!!"

Braam-ay Whispered cooings of soft prayers to the old guest as he lead the man back into the grand temple to replace his drink.

Dandy was grinning madly as they left waving mockingly in a clam shell handed gesture. "Bye bye Mr.Mulberri! Have a nice night!" he said calling after him giving him a wink playfully.

Dandy took a breath and smiled to himself with relief. He had finally done it, there was something that was blocking him before. Something in his way, immovable and completely obstructive. But now it felt like the path in his life had opened up. The air flowed easy through him now and he felt like he could breathe. He stepped through the unobstructed doors of the grand temple of sleep and rest as a different person. A happier version of himself, a more confident version of himself, if that were something you could see as possible for for a guy like him.


	18. Chapter 18

Dandy took his time going up and back down from retrieving his sunglasses, along the way thinking of all the ways his life was so much grander, so much more than it had been back on the space station when he was an adolescent.

He had been so small, so naive before. The biggest things in his world, was the food that he was going to get for dinner, and the small occasion that a cool space migbt come in to buy parts for their ship. Even his life after that with duster callaway wasn't that great. Being his errand boy, but more accurately his personal slave. Doing the dishes, washing dirty laundry, filing his bounty reports and a whole mess of meaningless petty tasks. Back then Dandy thought he was living the dream, but looking back on it now he could see that his time with duster was pretty much empty.

Now Dandy was captain of his own ship, making his own moves, experiencing life like no other person in the galaxy could. He knew that for a fact. He was just way to much of an original to be a copy of something common. There was only one person that could pull the types of stunts that he pulled, and that person, you could guess, was him.

Dandy walked inside to make his way to the front desk where the concierge Swihii was chatting and laughing good heartedly with one of his fellow desk attendants.

"Ahh Hey Swi-hii, i think i left something in the room. Could i get our card key back?"

"Oh-ho! Friend Dandy! I was hoping that you might come back to see us before the festival was over."

"Oh yeah, why's that?"

"One of the cleaning Monkeyans found some very nice looking sunglasses in your bedroom, and i was sure that they were yours"

"Oh. So you have them?"

Yes i do!" the monkeyan chirped happily bending down below the counter "i was just about to send them down to luggage for you, but you are here! hehe, so no worries"..

The Monkeyan came out from under the counter with Dandys signature sunglasses.

"Thats them! haha, good job Swihii, that saves me the trouble of looking for them, and finding our room." he added throwing an eyebrow at the elevators beyond the desk. "I never could remember how to get to our room".

"Yes yes, no worries My friend dandy, the trouble has been saved hehe."

Dandy in good moods, stood and chatted with swihii for a while longer before, bidding them goodbye again.

Heading out the temple front doors for the last time, he formerly felt suppressed, but now the feeling of appreciation for the temple as he was leaving it. The golden amber design to the the architecture and interior design of it gave him a great feeling of warmth. And As he walked out into the cold crisp air of the festival, he was feeling more like himself than he ever had before.

Dandy made his way back through the festival streets. The fireworks had not started yet but People had set up their intended firework viewing positions completely by now. There were groups lying along the front walls of every temple, sitting and chatting in various dialects, and along side the terrace railings large masses of people stood waiting, happy that they had an ideal vantage point for seeing the legendary monkeyan fireworks.

By now most of the food vendors had closed and the Monkeyans that had manned them stood outside their stalls chatting idly with those who were still open.

Dandy made his way back up the street and over to the main bridge of enlightenment where there was now a giant crowd of people. The bridge was absolutely packed. Excusing himself, and pushing around he made his way back to the middle of the bridge where he had left the Dandy crew. He found them a minute later standing in the same spot that they had been before.

"Oh Dandy!!!" He heard Qt Hum, as stepped across a family of Otter Aliens he chittered and chatted madly in their own language. "Your back!" and then tapping Meow on the shoulder with an extendable vacuum arm, "Hey Meow, Dandy is back!"

Meow turned around to see Dandy smiling and grinning profoundly, with that old wild spirited look in his eye. "Really? Is that Dandy?"

"Course, you' dumb old fleabag, is there anybody else in the Galaxy with this gorgeous of a face?"

"ah, er.. what? Dandy, what happened? Why are you smiling?.."

"Your darn right i'm smiling, i just had a.. ah er.. what do you call those things?.."

"Call what things?" asked Meow.

"Like when you have a sudden realization of something really important."

"An Epiphany, they call that an Epiphany."

"Yeah" Dandy said snapping his fingers, "i had one of those things".

"Oh wow, really?! So what does that mean? Does it mean that your better?"

"Im happy to tell you Meow, That it does. I'm back to my old self, OR actually I'm better than my old self"

"Oh wow, that's good" Said Qt

"That's right!" Dandy said, jabbing a finger at Qt. "All this time i was sitting around beating myself up about never passing the bounty hunter exam, or ever getting the chance to be like my childhood hero, but i finally realized just how blind I've been being. I'm not standing around today so i can look back at yesterday and feel bad about it not being my perfect pitching party. I'm standing around today so i can live up to all the things i am now, and all the things i will be in the future Baby. I don't need Duster, or those bounty hunters, or bounty hunting in general.. All of that stuff can go ahead and fall off the edge of the galaxy map. You know, my Dad told me something when i was a little kid, and i think i finally understand. He told me "I was the star", and i always wondered what he meant. But i get it now… I'm Dandy Baby, and i'm going to be the bright centerpiece of whatever i'm doing, that's just the way it is."

"OooOh wow, that was a really good speech Dandy, you really are back to normal huh.."Qt hummed. "Yeah, well i told you".

"It's about time, i was sure you were going to be stuck like that forever… but your out of it now, we can finally get back to business"

Just then there was a loud noise that came from the valley below. The Dandy crew turned around to see a light followed by trail of smoke flying high into the sky. The light travelled higher and higher, eventually coming to a summit well above the peaks of the highest of the surrounding mountains, before bursting brilliantly with a loud bang, a giant gold flower bloomed ten thousand feet in the air. The image of several billion candles exploding out from a single spot, and arranging themselves perfectly within inches of each other. Side by side these lights formed a full scale imitation of a decadent flower, shining like a miniature sun set high above the middle of the chasm of the valley of the enlightenment.

While everybody gasped and awed at the beauty of the flower that had just sprung up into the sky above, several more loud noises rang out from the valley below. *Bow, Bow, Bow, Bow*

In a horseshoe shape several other rockets went up into the air, these lights only going half of the distance of the first but being just above perfectly level with many of the terraces festival guests were viewing from, before they burst into golden bushes of gold and white glitter.

From here there was a full scale assault on the free space of air by the Monkeyan firework artists, as a garden of golden firework bushes, and flowers sprang into life. One flower bursting into life in one space, shimmering its shining glory, before fading and showing up in another space. Like lightning bugs that dance around in the air fading in and out, the arrangement of fireworks was unparalleled.

Dandy watching the show light up the night sky, threw an arm around each one of his companions shoulders. "You guys really did good taking me here. I don't think i could have asked for some better companions."

"Yeah, well you owe me 1500 wu-longs for paying for the tickets, and an extra 500 for all the trouble.." Meow smarted, taking Dandy's arm off of him like he was picking off a dirty wet shirt from his back.

"It was worth it meow, we got Dandy back to the way he's supposed to be, thats whats really important. Plus, Soon you'll have the reward for turning in the Lalalama... Speaking of which,.. Where is he?". Meow said turning around to the crowd around them, where the Llama was nowhere to be seen.

"I have no idea" Said Qt "I thought he was standing right behind us, he 'talking to you or something using his telepathy?"

"No, he didn't say anything from the time Dandy left"

"I leave for ten seconds and You guys lose the legendary Psychic Llama, why does this not surprise me?" Dandy cooed grinning.

"Oh look Meow!" Said Qt, pointing to the ground a few feet away where there was a colorful lump sitting on the floor. "Isn't that the quilt you used to cover up the Lalalama?"

Meow went over to the blanket and picked it up, inspecting it thoroughly."It sure is." He said, and then breaking into a grimace "So this means he just got up and left us here!?"

"I guess so," said Dandy hands in pockets eyeing the blanket with hooded eyes."Not like we needed him anyways, i got the enlightenment we came for. And without using his power. Pshh, you can only be enlightened once, shows him what's what."

Meow fell to his knees once again, tears welling up into his eyes. "But the Reward!... 2 Million Wu-longs to get him registered. I was going to have 5 star ramen for life!!".

The fireworks over the valley started to reach a climax as Meow wept. The Monkeyans had now quadrupled the amount of fireworks they were setting off, and the air was now absolutely filled with fiery glitter. A whisper of a thought floated across Dandy's mind as he watched the air grow intensly bright.

~Your the Star Bud, ok?~

The stars of the past still glittered and shone in his mind just like the fireworks showed here. Elders to the person in Life that he was now, Dandy knew that the memory of them would not fade as the fireworks did. And he knew also that he was just as much a Star himself as they were to him. A brilliant ball of soul, shining out in all directions.

Dandy smiled, ~ok old man~ He thought to himself, ~I'm the star~.

*Bow Bow BowBowBowBow BowBow PaaPaww!!!*

END

Happy New Year!!!!

Hope the light of the Star's reach you, And you spend the rest of your life in PeaceHappiness Babeee!_


End file.
